With violence between Israelis and Palestinians pushing the death toll on each side escalating, talk about peace, or even a cease-fire, seems more distant than ever. The past 17 months of the "Intifada," or rebellion, in the West Bank and Gaza has claimed more than 1,000 Palestinian and 300 Israeli lives. Signs of hope in the deadly cycle of suicide bombings, assassinations, air strikes and demolition of homes are few, but a peace plan recently proposed by the Saudi government has given officials on both sides of the conflict something to respond to apart from the cries for revenge coming from an increasingly polarized populace.

As the conflict continues, the Bush administration has made it clear that it holds Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat responsible for the violence while remaining largely uncritical of Israeli attacks on Arab militants and the expansion of Jewish settlements in the territories. Advocates for peace have long critized the role of pro-Israel lobby groups in the U.S. who they say use their powerful influence to urge Washington's support for hardline positions of Israel's right-wing Likud government, diminishing prospects for a negotiated settlement.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with investigative journalist Michael Massing, who discusses his recent article titled "Deal Breakers" published in the American Prospect, which examines the disconnect between many American Jews and two powerful conservative U.S.-Israel lobby groups, the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Related links

• "Deal Breakers," by Michael Massing, The American Prospect, March 11, 2002, www.prospect.org