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International trends / Comment

The next U.S. president and the Israel-Palestine conflict

30/10/2008 By Henry Siegman

 The next occupant of the Oval Office will be the last American president to be able to save the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. If he does not pursue and achieve this goal during the first year of his presidency, the two-state “horizon” that President George W. Bush pursued so ineffectively is likely to disappear for good.

But even a quick engagement by the new president will fare no better than previous U.S. peace initiatives – all of which have gotten nowhere – if he and his advisors approach the task believing that some more “peace processing” or “confidence-building measures” will achieve the goal that eluded his predecessors.

A U.S. initiative that goes beyond the failed “facilitation” of previous administrations to vigorous and determined diplomacy can still produce a two-state solution, but only a president whose political and moral horizon extends beyond the next Congressional elections – and understands that by the time those elections occur, the two-state solution will have disappeared – can hope to bring this multi-generational tragedy to an end.

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Keywords

Conflict Gaza Strip and West Bank Israel United States

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Bio author: Henry Siegman

Henry Siegman is president of the U.S./Middle East Project, a program of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) for the past 14 years and, as of September 2006, an independent policy institute. He is also a research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Mr. Siegman's areas of specialization include Arab-Israel relations, the Middle East peace process, U.S. Middle East policy, and interreligious relations.