The United States needs to move much more vigorously to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This requires both Israelis and Palestinians to make painful compromises on key issues. It is time that the United States declare its position on key issues including Jerusalem, the settlement and borders, and the status of Palestinian refugees.
Why is this important?
The inability to make progress on the Middle-East peace process poses grave dangers to the parties in the region as well as the United States. For the Palestinians, continued settlement expansion in the occupied territories threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state. For the Israelis, continued settlement expansion increasingly makes it impossible to withdraw from occupied territories and may set the stage for a violent confrontation between Israel and the Arab/Muslim world.
