Why China Can't Solve the Israel-Palestine Conflict

摘要

Having emerged as an economic colossus and military power, the People's Republic of China achieves what other global heavyweights could not: a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. It's an enticing narrative. But could the four-point peace plan that Chinese President Xi Jinping pitched on May 7 to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas-who left Beijing just before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived-actually work? "I can give you a one-word answer: no," says Gerald Steinberg, professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University in Israel. The reality, for now, is that no country except the U.S. is trusted enough by both sides to broker peace talks-especially those by Israel, which sees itself as persecuted and misunderstood by the world but gives the U.S. points for trying.