The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the subject of much academic and popular literature. However, the peace process has not yet achieved its goal of putting the conflict to an official end or establishing a permanent two-state solution for both peoples. Several barriers to peace have been identified.
One barrier that impedes negotiation is the differing cultures of the different negotiating teams. In my experience, Palestinian negotiators tended to anchor their demands high in order to allow themselves a large range of flexibility when dealing with specific issues. On the other hand, Israeli negotiators anchored their demands low, often very close to or even at their reservation point. This made it difficult to reach an agreement on issues that were under mutual consent.
Another barrier is the frequent change in negotiating team members, which can affect the level of coordination and consistency of positions in negotiations. In my case, the Palestinian head negotiator in the AHC was the same person for four years while the Israeli chairman rotated three times during that time. This resulted in a lack of institutional memory and a unidirectional recitation of the same old rhetoric.
Lastly, there is the general distrust that both sides have of each other. On the Palestinian side, there is a deep-seated belief that Israel cannot be trusted to keep its commitments or to respect the results of the negotiation process. On the Israeli side, there is a growing suspicion that Hamas and Hezbollah will continue to provide support for terrorist attacks against Israel, thereby making any peace deal illusory.