#Peace: The message:

 The conference won’t change anything on the ground. Just like nothing changed on the ground after the United Nations General Assembly resolution which recognized the Palestinians as a non-member observer state. All it will do is raise the expectations, which will only increase the frustration and violence. Albert Einstein defined “insanity” as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. When will the international community finally realize that granting the Palestinians unilateral achievements, time and again, is simply the wrong way?

Beyond the etiquette, the fireworks and the crispy croissants, this conference lacks any real content. International conferences are intended to serve as an envelope in which the sides work to reach an agreement while they hold direct negotiations. That’s the way it was in Madrid, Oslo and Camp David. The international community’s job is to provide incentives to both sides in order for them to sit down at the negotiating table and make it clear to them that without negotiations they both stand to lose, but it appears to be doing everything apart from that.

The conference is expected to reinforce the Security Council’s outrageous resolution, which encourages a boycott of Israel and determines, among other things, that the Western Wall, the Gilo neighborhood and other places are occupied Palestinian territory. Of course the conference will not deal with the real obstacles to peace, like the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, so its results are like a chronicle foretold. Instead of bringing the sides closer, it is expected to push them away from the negotiating table, deepen the stalemate it is in and encourage violence.