Israel and Palestine: Recognising the need for difficult compromises

The idea of using recognition of Palestine to stimulate the Middle East peace process comes from genuinely grassroots politics.

The Palestinians themselves didn’t employ this tactic in their diplomacy for a long time, knowing that each novel operation in the bitter conflict with Israel risks making matters worse as well as better.

But the failure of US secretary of state John Kerry to keep peace talks going, another war in Gaza, and spiraling violence on both sides tilted the argu...