Israel says a crucial condition for any peace agreement is a guarantee of security within its borders, something it believes Palestinian security forces are not yet capable of maintaining. Palestinians are uncomfortable with Israeli security forces maintaining a presence in a future Palestinian state.
Israeli soldiers are currently deployed throughout a majority of the West Bank, aside from the areas where Palestinians have full military and civil control. Most previous agreements had a plan for gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from most of the future Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he wants to post Israeli forces along the external borders of the Gaza Strip and West Bank to ensure that weapons that could be used against Israel are not entering Palestinian territory.
Many Israeli officials also are uncomfortable with the idea of a Palestinian national army and have proposed a state with limitations on its arms capability for at least a few years.
