use both sides continue to interfere with aid delivery in order to improve their negotiating positions in the coming peace talks. EFTA00685160 As the International Crisis Group concluded in its recent report, we are today in a paradoxical situation where rebels, refugees, traders, and civilians—everybody except those delive

irs. "Almost by any definition they have become more institutionalized," said Nathan Thrall, an analyst who covers the Palestinian territories for the International Crisis Group. "They more or less have been keeping a calm in Gaza. A very imperfect calm, and one that has escalations every three or four or five months, but

l-Mal=ki, who has made every effort to destroy any credible leadership among the=Sunnis attempting to join the government. According to a repo=t by the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental group that works on=conflict resolution, Maliki has cast out prominent Sunni leaders on the ba=is of their connections to Saddam'

C's success, on any given day, resided in these hard-won personal relationships. Still, the mission was not without its critics. In a 2010 report, the International Crisis Group noted EFTA_R1_02205148 EFTA02721228 erroneously, "With the improvement of Palestinian capacity ... the security reform project has gone on auto

shows how much the region has changed since the Arab uprisi=gs began," said Nathan Thrall, who researches Israel and the Palestinian=territories for the International Crisis Group, which works to prevent con=lict. "Now when Gaza is under fire, the loudest voices come not from the=so-called Axis of Resistance — Iran, Syria and