To Our Readers

There are clear signs that President Barack Obama and his team are creating a new “made in America” policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The shape of the new policy is yet to emerge, but it will give greater weight to U.S. national security interests and be less deferential to the needs of the Israeli government. A new peace initiative is most likely to succeed if it offers a broad new American vision of peace between Israel and Palestine and in the rest of the region. It should focus on the endgame of two states that meets the interdependent needs of security for Israel and freedom for Palestine. It should include specific recommendations for resolving the hard issues of settlements, borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and security.

Such a new policy will require a more honest relationship between Israel and the United States to replace the comfortable evasions and avoidance of tough decisions used in the past to avoid tensions. The American-Israeli alliance and the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security should be used to help Israel and Palestine overcome their dysfunctional politics and make peace, not as a blank check for any Israeli policy.

Today, Israel’s character and security as a Jewish and democratic state, as well as its traditional alliance with the United States, are threatened in the long run by Israel’s continuing policy of occupation and settlement of Palestinian territory. The United States, as Israel’s closest friend, should explain these painful realities. Alliances endure over time only if the interests of the partners are mutual. The “shared values” that underlie the U.S.-Israeli alliance will become a hollow phrase if Israel cannot untangle itself from its forty-two-year adventure in occupation and settlement.