December 14, 2013 12:10 AM
By Rami G. Khouri
The Daily Star

Story Summary

Five points for John Kerry to consider

We seem to have arrived at that inevitable moment that we all knew was coming, when the United States would stop trying to be a low-key and ineffective mediator between Israelis and Palestinians, and instead play a more decisive role by offering its own proposals on a permanent peace agreement.

The few leaks available also seem to continue the American official tradition of paying much more attention to core Israeli needs than to Palestinian ones – such as demanding some form of clear Arab recognition of the Jewish nature of the Israeli state, rather than demanding any level of Israeli recognition of the crimes committed against Palestinians in 1947-1948, which created the Palestinian refugee problem in the first place.

So the U.S. is wise to make substantive changes in the two areas that matter most in this respect – Arab-Israeli issues and relations with Iran (the third area, American support for Arab dictators, has been taken in hand by Arab citizens themselves who have given up on any American or European assistance).

What should we look for to find out if the U.S. is more serious than it was previously about brokering a just and permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord?

Read more: http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Dec-14/241024-five-points-for-john-kerry-to-consider.ashx#ixzz2nQrZRzXC
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