Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World, spoke about his recent piece in Foreign Affairs. Mead suggested we reorchestrate our understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so that working to further Palestinian causes is also recognized as furthering Israeli interests. Improving the Palestinian situation, and addressing non-zero sum issues -- such as the plight of those Palestinian refugees that will inevitable not return - Mead suggests, is the responsibility of the international community, and an important way for the US to play a positive role in the peace process.

Walter Russell Mead:

"I want to talk about some myths I that think shape the way we look at foreign policy, particularly the dispute between the Arabs, the Israelis and the Palestinians."

"The first myth is that there's an easy solution to this problem...it's important to remember that this dispute has been festering for a very long time. You know, Lloyd George got Britain through World War I, but he didn't make much progress in the Middle East, Winston Churchill got Britain through World War II but he also signally failed to resolve the issues behind the British Mandate. Franklin D. Roosevelt was convinced he knew what an answer was to this problem."

"The second myth that I think is worth referring to is a myth that in American foreign policy a tail is wagging the dog here. That is to say US support for Israel reflects a view of a small minority of Americans who have organized into what some have called an Israel lobby and that it is the sort of undue pressure and influence of this group that causes American policy to support Israel... I think that very much misses the nature and structure and the depth of America's support for Israel. You can go back and look at polling back as far as 1948...and you'll find pretty consistently that the Americans who want to see a pro-Israel position in US foreign policy has outnumbered those who want a pro-Arab or pro-Palestinian position by roughly three to one."

"That's what the majority, or a very large plurality, of Americans want. And while the Israel lobby has an influence and it exists, its influence, in a sense its power, comes from the fact that its able to mobilize and rely on broad public support for Israel.... 97% of Americans that want a pro-Israel foreign policy are not Jewish."

"Myth number three, which is that a pro-Israel stance by the United States makes it impossible for the US to play a positive role in Middle East peace negotiations... there are some very important things that an American president can do, that help make peace more likely. Improve the atmosphere for the very, very difficult negotiations between the two parties that ultimately will have to give us the final outline...and which are politically sustainable at home, and overseas."

"I think for the Obama administration this is a real opportunity to go forward and do some things we haven't done before. What's the key? It seems to me conceptually that there aretwo key things that we need to do. Number one, understand conceptually that there are a lot of non-zero sum issues, on the table in Israeli Palestinian negotiations."

"But there are many other, and they are vital, issues that are not zero-sum. For example, what is the future of Palestinians who don't return going to be? What happens to the Palestinians... who do not have passports? Who may live in a place like Lebanon where they do not have basic economic and social and civil rights. What is their future going to be? To provide an honest, decent, dignified and just road into the future for these people is not necessarily to take something away form Israel."

"In fact it seems to me if one views this clearly, to improve the choices and conditions of Palestinians is to add to both Palestinians and Israelis. Ultimately, and I think Israelis know this, peace will only be real if Palestinians consent to it."

"Too often there's a tendency to blame one side or the other in the conflict. For the dispossession of the Palestinians, for the refugee situation that was created. It seems to me you have to say, yes, the Israelis have some responsibility, the Arabs have some responsibility, but the international community I think bares an ultimate responsibility here."

"And when we think about how do we provide compensation to the Palestinians; how do we recognize the injustice that they have suffered; how do we help Palestinians find new better lives, new and better futures -- within the context of a two state solution, which is a very painful compromise for both sides -- the international community has to step up through financial, moral and legal responsibility for its own failures to protect."

"Israel can not bare this alone, the Palestinian can not bare it alone, but in order for peace to come, the international community I believe led by the United States...needs to step up to the plate and provide some leadership so that the ongoing tragedy of Palestinian dispossession the wrongs that Palestinians have suffered can be addressed in a conscientious, moral and practical way."

Daniel Levy:

"I think we're at a place today, where the cost to the US of being allied to a party in an unresolved conflict that has such resonance in the region, aligned with the cost to Israel of this ongoing conflict, taken together with the really strong sense in the region that the window may be closing on the two-state solution, could leave that American-Israeli relationship in a place where we have fewer and fewer, and no good options, in terms of what both sides in that relationship can then pursue."

"For all the rhetoric and toughness you see in the Israeli election campaign right now, the interesting thing is that Benjamin Netanyahu is trying, as he did when he won an election in 1996, is trying to say hey, I'm not a cede-no-inch crazy right-winger, you'll have a peace process with me." 

"We're very timid. Israeli democracy is something that is instantly recognizable...it looks very familiar. Palestinian politics doesn't look like something you would consider familiar. The characters aren't immediately translatable...but politics in the Palestinian side absolutely exist, and unless there is a legitimacy, a sufficient legitimacy inside community and society, then that's bad for Israel. I would say that's the key flaw to where we are now with Annapolis... we're creating a process that suffers from the law of ever diminishing returns...I think it's a good idea to look at this distinction between zero-sum and non zero-sum."

"I want to close by saying that if one can look at those non zero-sum components, and take very seriously this idea that on the Palestinian side there needs to be something that is more inclusive, to have more capacity to be legitimate, be more acceptable, and therefore be more likely to stick -- which is what the Israelis need...and one of the things that I take from the piece which I think broadens... and allows us to think afresh, is the narrative around the Palestinian refugees."