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A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***After nearly 11 months of war in Gaza, negotiations towards a ceasefire deal have so far failed. Despite optimism expressed by U.S. officials,  negotiators have been unable to forge an Israeli-Hamas agreement in mediation talks that began in Doha, Qatar, earlier this month, and fighting continues in Gaza. Plus, this weekend, the conflict once again threatened to spill over into a wider regional war, with Israel trading intense strikes with Hizballah in Lebanon and carrying out an airstrike in the West Bank. We asked four experts why the talks, so far, have failed and what, if anything, could bring about peace.Read more below.Oren Barak Maurice B. Hexter Chair in International Relations, Middle East Studies & Professor of Political Science The Hebrew University of JerusalemThe streets of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, are currently the stage of an intense political struggle between those who support and oppose a deal between Israel and Hamas. The former hang posters calling for an agreement that would bring the remaining 109 hostages home, as well as pictures of the men, women, and children still held in captivity in Gaza. The latter mount posters supporting a “total victory” for Israel, as well as pictures and stickers of Israeli soldiers killed in the war, whose deaths they say should not be in vain.This “poster battle” reflects the deep political divide in Israeli society and among Israeli policymakers about the Gaza War. Israel’s current security chiefs, as well as many retired security officials, support a deal with Hamas that would put an end to the conflict and free