Adding to Rick’s fine points regarding “two state solutionism,” note that former Israeli general and National Security Advisor Giora Eiland has written a short-but-sharp compilation of “America’s seven false assumptions” on the two-state solution. “Had the US administration undertaken a real assessment and examined the fundamental assumptions underlining the [two state] solution, it may have reached different conclusions,” Eiland writes. The seven crux issues are:

• Do Palestinians want a state in line with the 1967 borders, or do they want much more?
• Can the differences between Israeli and Palestinian leadership be bridged?
• Do Egypt and Jordan have any real interest in solving the conflict?
• Will a final status agreement actually bring stability?
• Is this the right time for reaching an agreement?
• If one wants Arab support on Iran, does one need to make progress in Palestine?
• Is there only one solution to the conflict?

So while Israel and the U.S. will be wasting a lot of precious time negotiating a “deal” on evacuation of outposts, and while Netanyahu will be wasting a lot of political capital in trying to prevent his coalition from collapsing due to these negotiations, it will be easy to forget that none of this really matters. The twenty-six outposts can be evacuated, agreement on settlement-freeze in some form can be reached, final status negotiations can be resumed — unfortunately, peace may still be as elusive as it is today.