Joschka Fischer says the seven-decade-old Israel-Palestinian conflict has been on the front and back burner - depending on geopolitics in the Middle East - and at the mercy of regional players. The only real hope for a peace settlement was between 1993 when the first Oslo Accord was signed and Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in November 1995. The then Israeli prime minister was murdered by a Jewish extremist, who wanted to stop the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Today his family does not regret the assassination, saying “it needed to be done,”

The author says that "in both the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords, the status of Jerusalem was left unresolved. It was widely agreed that such a sensitive and complicated issue would have to be addressed at the end of the peace process." The accords established the Palestinian Authority to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem). And the Palestinians recognised "the existence of Israel in 1993, that decision alone was seen as a big step forward."

In 1947 under the aegis of the UN Palestine was partitioned into separate Jewish and Arab states after Britain signaled an end to its mandate there and called for an international control over Jerusalem and its surroundings. Israel declared independence in May 1948 and fought the first war, with Arab armies failing to defeat the new Jewish state after Britain's withdrawal. Jordan occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Egypt occupied Gaza, and Israel held the rest of Palestine including West Jerusalem. Since then the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been dominating politics in the region, and Israel has won all the wars against its adversaries.

During the Six Day war in June 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, all of West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai. The following years saw an expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in occupied areas with government approval. The continuation of settlement building and military checkpoints had been met with Palestinian attacks. Hostility had slowed the progress towards a final agreement, leading many on both sides to dispute the worth of the Accords.

The author says the 2003 US invasion in Iraq and the Arab Spring in 2011 had distracted the world from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The war in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State in 2014 led to a proxy war fought between Iran and Saudi Arabia. With the defeat of ISIS, the two regional powers are now embroiled in a power struggle for regional hegemony, taking a toll on domestic politics in Lebanon and Qatar.

Since Trump appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner as Middle East envoy, tensions have risen between the Riyadh and Tehran. Adding fuel to the fire Trump openly demonised Iran and enraged the Muslim world with its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Even if Saudi Arabia is eager to weaken Iran with Israel's help, it is not willing to alienate Muslims around the world. Since Jerusalem’s "status is a fraught political and religious issue," most countries choose not to take side, as it could "damage the prospects for an eventual two-state solution."

If the two-state solution is off the table, Palestinians would certainly demand equal rights within Israel's "binational arrangement," which many fear could usher in an end to both a Jewish and democratic state. The author proposes a "third option" - a Palestinian state "could be created in Gaza, extended into the Northern Sinai, and put under Egypt’s de facto control, while the West Bank could be divided between Israel and Jordan. But the Palestinians would never accept this outcome, and it would not solve the problem of Israel becoming a binational state."

It is unclear whether Saudi Arabia would rather focus on Iran as its "top priority. And because Saudi Arabia is too weak to win that fight on its own....it will continue to strengthen its ties with Iran’s other rivals, especially with the region’s military superpower: Israel." There is no appetite in Israel to launch a war against Iran, which would only further destabilise the region. Besides it fears attacks from the Iran-backed Hezbollah, and perhaps Hamas.