In the Middle East, America is not just a broker; Washington is a part of the solution and part of the problem. Israel did not become a regional superpower on its own. As a result, the United States has become joined at the hip to Israel. In a difficult regional environment, Washington is a guarantor of Israel’s security; reciprocally, Israel serves US strategic interests.  In a New York Times op-ed (Nov 7), Friedman attributes the stalemate to a deficit in seriousness of the protagonists: “If the status quo is this tolerable for the parties, then I say, let them enjoy it. I just don’t want to subsidise it or anesthetise it anymore.

We need to fix America. If and when they get serious, they’ll find us. And when they do, we should put a detailed US plan for a two-state solution, with borders, on the table.”

The popular columnist is right to look for a paradigm shift for the peace process. However, the solution is not in abandoning the mediation at a moment of despair. The Middle East conflict might explode if the US suddenly abandons the scene of conflict resolution. Things are indeed worsening, even before the United States 
considers disengagement. Regional headlines are telling: Abbas is threatening to resign. Netanyahu prevails on the settlements issue as Washington yields to the ‘Israel-first’ lobby. Hilary Clinton regrets her praise of Netanyahu for his “unprecedented gesture” on limiting illegal construction on Palestinian land. The region’s public erupts with anger. Israel is mobilised to respond to a defiant and risk-averse Iranian regime, a provoked Hamas in Gaza and a re-mobilised Hezbollah in Lebanon. As the peace process stalls hope starts to fade.

The voice of moderation in Palestine is discouraged and the voice of anger is rewarded. Abbas feels he has no peace partners in Israel and no support 
in the West. Since 1967, the Arab-Israeli conflict has gradually evolved into a complex Arab-Israeli- American problem. The US has been involved in the Israeli occupation, its maintenance, its expansion and its rationalisation. The US supplies Israel with phenomenal aid and military assistance.

Washington protects Israel from criticism at the United Nations. Most Americans may not wish to be deeply involved in the region. But their government, business and religious leaders over the last four decades have been active in every aspect of life in Israel and in the wider Middle East.

Over the last few decades, Israel has shifted from seeking national security to establishing regional dominance. Fear fuels Israeli short-sighted politics and self-fulfilling prophecies. For their part, the Palestinians have diluted their secular approach to statehood by mixing their political struggle with religious symbols. Hamas remains popular and powerful. Israel is split deeply on the rights of settlers. It is not clear how they can work out a Jewish state within a democratic framework. There is no plan on co-existence with Palestinians and on the viability of a Palestinian state. For Israelis, the future is not a pleasant subject.

Divisions among Palestinians are pathetic. The Palestinians have two leadership systems, two governments and two geographical administrations.

It might be politically too risky for the president now to try harder than before to confront the Israel lobby. Understandably, Obama would rather risk his re-election prospects on ambitious health reform and fixing the US economy than on twisting arms to recast the US role in the peace process. To enhance the Mideast peace prospects, America must engage as an equal partner in the search for a solution to the conflict, with full rights 
and responsibilities.

Israel should acknowledge that its occupation of Palestinian territories negatively impacts both its own future security and the strategic interests of the US. The three sides, America, Israel and the Arabs, must work out a win-win peace plan. When the US participates in the peace process as a stake-holder, not simply as a convener, there will no more be a need to beg and cajole Israel or the Palestinians to be’as Friedman anticipates ‘more serious.’

Dr Ghassan Rubeiz is an Arab-American commentator and former Middle East secretary for Geneva-based World Council of Churches. Distributed by the Common Ground News Service