Robert Malley, the Middle East program director at the International Crisis Group says regional progress should be the focus of the Obama administration.
"I think by changing that landscape you may do more to help move towards a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than by focusing on a two-state solution right now," he said.

 

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Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs View this page at www.dailyalert.org Subscribe  RSS-XML  DAILY ALERT Thursday, March 12, 2009
Daily Alert Needs Your Support In-Depth Issues: . Search Key Links  Media Contacts  Back Issues  Fair Use		News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia: Obama Administration Overhauls U.S. Mideast Policy - Meredith Buel President Obama has been in office less than two months, but he has already dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, special envoy George Mitchell, and other diplomats from the State Department and White House to the Middle East. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, who also visited the region, said, "We need to fundamentally re-conceptualize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a regional problem that demands a regional solution. The challenges that we face there - Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Middle East peace process - form an interconnected web that requires an integrated approach." (...)     Robert Malley, the Middle East program director at the International Crisis Group, says, "If I were advising the administration I would say you could work on the margins - Palestinian reconciliation, reaching out to Syria, restarting Syrian-Israeli negotiations, reaching out to Iran. I think by changing that landscape you may do more to help move towards a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than by focusing on a two-state solution right now." Malley says current realities on the ground diminish hopes of quick progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (VOA News) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast: Unsubscribe from Daily Alert