عملية السلام

If the president takes a risk and advocates interim steps, he will be making a major contribution toward sustaining a two-state vision that is slowly fading in the minds of Israelis and Palestinians.

Persuading Israelis that he is committed to their security could help President Obama deal with Netanyahu on Iran and the peace track.

Washington's former chief negotiator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposes a fourteen-point agenda to ensure that any new talks have a chance to be productive.

On February 5, David Makovsky, director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at The Washington Institute, testified before the House regarding the implications of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation and its effects on the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The following is an excerpt from his testimony.

With Netanyahu's bloc winning fewer votes than expected and the center-left winning more, forming a coalition government will be complicated.

The Israeli public is moving to the right on the Palestinian issue, but economic and social concerns, more than security debates, are likely to determine the left/right composition of the next Knesset.

In the coming months, what the parties say will be more important than what they do.

The growing threat of Arab-Israeli war, the Iranian nuclear issue, and the potential for Palestinian political meltdown could make this year a precarious one for Israel.

As the projected makeup of the leading faction in Israel's next government becomes increasingly clear, Washington should begin considering what it might mean for U.S. policy.