Summary

The Israeli and Palestinian leaderships are currently unable to sustain a viable peace process aimed at producing a two-state solution. Hence the Obama administration and the international community should readjust their priorities. Three areas of alternative effort suggest themselves. Israel-Syria peace negotiations would test the possibility of reducing the presence of Iran in the region and weakening its Islamist surrogates, Hizbullah and Hamas.

All the abortive strategies invoked in recent years against Hamas in Gaza should be assessed with a view to stabilizing the Strip and neutralizing Hamas' capacity to sabotage a peace process. And more dynamic support, including from Israel, should be offered for Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad's encouraging statebuilding program on the West Bank.