Can Obama avert an Arab-Israeli disaster?

"Time is running out for Israel and the Palestinians. Barack Obama is probably the last American president to have the option of pursuing an accord leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the so-called two-state solution."

So begins an op-ed piece by Bernd Debusmann, writing on Reuters.

In a most interesting piece well worth reading [in full, here] Bebusmann deals with what appears pessimism that any signs of a new approach to resolving the on-going issue is emerging from the Obama camp:

"While Obama has been critical of the hands-off approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the first seven years of the Bush administration, dismissing its efforts as “trips consisting of little more than photo-ops”, the president-elect has shown no sign that he might be willing to break with the decades-old policies that have earned the U.S. a reputation in the Arab world of backing Israel no matter what."

Interesting, too, is the seemingly growing position emanating from both Arabs and Israelis that a two-State solution may not be possible.

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