COMMENT The mood music has been good. Ahead of one of the most momentous meetings of his presidency – with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, on Monday – Barack Obama has communicated his determination to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all. Not just to restore regional stability. Not just to safeguard Israel’s future or to do justice to the Palestinians. But in the national interest of the US, which, after the Bush years, faces a long struggle to re-establish credibility and moral standing in the Arab and Muslim worlds.
President Obama has found convincing words to say there will be a new approach to the problems of the broader Middle East: in his victory speech in Chicago, at his inauguration, in his interview with Al Arabiya TV, in his new year’s greetings to Iran, and above all in his speech last month to the Turkish parliament. “The United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security”, he said in Ankara. “That is a goal that the parties agreed to that is a goal that I will actively pursue”.
