World-renowned expert Professor Peter Jones of the University of Ottawa recently provided an overview of the history and relevance of Track 2 Diplomacy.

While open relations with the UAE and Bahrain are welcome for Israel, these two countries are not the main prize. Such a breakthrough with Saudi Arabia would really signal the end of the Arab boycott of Israel. As always, the real losers in all this are the Palestinians. With very few cards to play, they had hoped that the façade of “Arab Unity” would prevail and at least deny Israel formal relations with the remaining states of the Arab world (beyond Egypt and Jordan) until they had achieved their state.