While packaged as a triumph, the rollout of a new round of Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations is in fact more of a relief, given the circuitous path required to
arrive at the talks. Convinced of the need for a U.S. role that was at once
more activist and yet more dispassionate, President Barack Obama's administration
committed a series of early diplomatic miscues that strained U.S. relations
with both Israelis and Palestinians, and likely delayed the onset of direct
negotiations. The legacy of those early errors -- the Sept. 26 expiration (or
perhaps extension) of Israel's settlement moratorium -- continues to hang as a
dark cloud over the fledgling peace process.
In light of the experience of the last 18 months, therefore,
it is prudent to use the commencement of "direct talks" not only to
revisit the negotiating issues themselves, but also to reassess the U.S. role
in the negotiations.
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