The perfect mediator and his limitations

toward a multifaceted approach to peacemaking in the Israeli-palestinian struggle

Sapir Handelman

pp. 263-286

in: Nimrod Bar Am, Stefano Gattei (eds), Encouraging openness, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

Who is the most suitable mediator to create a peacemaking change in difficult situations of intractable conflict? Realists will argue that an effective mediator is an intermediary with leverage who can impose settlement on the opposing sides. Pluralists and human needs theorists will claim that a suitable mediator is a problem solving facilitator who could help political elites of opposing parties find solutions to fundamental needs, fears and concerns that constantly fuel the conflict. Contractualists will suggest a consensus-building mediator who could help in establishing an effective peacemaking coalition from major elements in the opposing parties. This paper takes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a case study to examine the advantages and disadvantages of each proposal. It presents the different mediators and analyzes the negotiating processes that each of them suggests. It shows that no mediator can create the foundations of an effective peacemaking process by himself alone. The perfect mediator is built of a sophisticated mixture of prominent qualities of different types of intermediaries, which enables him to lead various peacemaking interactions simultaneously. The paper concludes that a multifaceted approach to peacemaking, which utilizes various types of mediation simultaneously, has the greatest potential to approach the ideal of the perfect mediator and create the conditions for an effective peace process.