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While the prospect of ever resolving the Israel-Palestine dispute may appear "pretty bleak," the two countries actually are closer to agreement than ever, Galia Golan said at a Thursday night seminar.

With mutual recognition of each other's right to exist and the majority of both populations accepting a two-state solution - where Israel and a Palestinian state co-exist side-by-side - peace is possible, Golan said in her Seminars at Steamboat lecture "Israel, Palestine and the Chances for Peace."

Golan, who sits on the faculty of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, shared her recommendations for how to resolve core disputes in the Israel-Palestine conflict, including borders, settlements, Jerusalem and refugees.

In the irrevocably inter-twined issues of borders and settlements, each side has directly opposing goals - Israel trying to keep as much land as possible, and the Palestinians attempting to regain as much territory as they can, Golan said.

The Palestinians want eastern Jerusalem back, to serve as the capital of any future Palestinian state.

"Israel, obviously, has a problem with this," Golan said.

Refugees may be the toughest issues of them all, Golan said.

The United Nations estimated that there are three to four million displaced Palestinians living in Jordan, Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, many still in refugee camps, Golan said. Allowing them and their descendants back into Israel would put the country's Jewish-majority demographics at risk and be an enormously complicated process as the refugees' former communities and homes in many cases no longer exist, she said.

"There is no government in Israel - past, present or future - that will agree to permit three million, two million, one million Palestinians to return," Golan said. "It would make Jews a minority in Israel proper, bringing an end to the Jewish state."

Ultimately, however, Golan is optimistic that the two sides of the dispute will be able to set aside their differences and be able to make compromises in favor of peace.

"What is generally assumed is that there will be a tradeoff - Israel will give a bit on the Jerusalem issue, and the Palestinians will give a bit on the refugee issue," Golan said. "This is not discussed publicly a great deal, but this is approximately the compromise that may ultimately be worked out."

Golan also advocated that

the United States and other world powers proactively push for changes that will most directly lead to cessation of the conflict.

"What action could or should the next U.S. president take," Seminars at Steamboat Board President John Worthen asked.

"Well, I could tell what action should not be taken - look at the past eight years," Golan said. "Benign neglect, supporting whatever the Israeli prime minister decides to do, in my opinion, that's not necessarily a pro-Israel policy."

- To reach Melinda Dudley, call 871-4203

or e-mail mdudley@steamboatpilot.com