This is the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. After the peace deal was signed

between Israel and Hamas last week, the news coming out of the Middle East was slightly less

grim than it's been for the last two years. The remaining living hostages were returned to Israel

and aid trucks began to enter Gaza.

But for the Gazans, returning to their homes to find just rubble, and for the besieged residents of the West Bank,

what does this tentative peace deal really mean?

Last month, on the New York Radio Hour, host David Remnick had a conversation

about the fate of the two-state solution. We're replaying it because it provides useful

background information on what we might hear in the weeks and months to come. Here's David.

For so long, our hopes for peace in the Middle East lay with a two-state solution.

Israel and a Palestinian state recognizing one another's right to exist with some kind

of security guarantees in place.

But nearly two years after the October 7th attack, the two-state solution now seems

like mere rhetoric, an illusion. The brutality of that attack struck grief and horror into nearly

every Israeli, and it emboldened the most hard-line elements in the Israeli government. In Gaza,

tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.

Nearly every building there has been either destroyed or damaged.

Israel faces accusations of war crimes and even genocide.

And in the West Bank, Israel seems poised to annex the territory entirely.

And it goes on and on.

The killing, the destruction, the displacement, and so much more.

Looking back now, we have to wonder, was there ever a real chance for peace?

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