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Jerusalem is just one of the issues that will sink the peace talks

As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators enter into peace talks for the first time since 2008, a sense of profound pessimism prevails. The central issue of the status of Jerusalem, now unresolved for over 60 years, seems more hopeless than ever. Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition government is to the extreme right of the Israeli political spectrum, and his Palestinian equivalent Mahmood Abbas lacks legitimacy after a vicious rift between Fatah and Hamas delayed elections, artificially extending his term of office.

With the Israelis going into the talks apparently insisting on an undivided Jerusalem, and the Palestinians unable to broker a deal without a capital in East Jerusalem, a peace deal seems more remote than ever. Nevertheless, President Obama has set great store on breaking the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock, and some argue that, with the eventual settlement largely delineated over 31 years of talks, this might be the right time to start bringing the famous two-state solution into being.