For almost 20 years, the creed governing U.S. involvement in the Arab-Israeli peace process has been that the United States cannot want peace more than the parties themselves. … That strategy clearly has failed. After decades of intermittent negotiations, Arabs and Israelis have yet to reach agreement on a solution to this century-long conflict, and with each passing year the problems grow only more difficult to solve. No U.S. administration has managed to avoid being drawn into the morass of Middle East crisis management, no matter how emphatically it was committed to letting the kids fight it out themselves. …
The policy that the region needs, and the one that can restore U.S. leadership, should focus on … developing and promoting a framework for comprehensive resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This framework should be developed in consultation with the parties and international partners, building on ideas articulated in previous talks and agreements. …
Comprehensiveness is the answer. It is time to forgo the futile debate about which track should take precedence: Syrian-Israeli or Palestinian- Israeli. The framework for peace should address both. Comprehensiveness in commitments does not foreclose prioritization in implementation; and, more importantly, it would militate against a party becoming a spoiler. Access the full article>>
