http://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-president-obama-must-tell-israel-before-january-18292

What President Obama Must Tell Israel Before January

It’ll take an ally to convince Israelis that the status quo is not sustainable.

Henry Siegman

November 4, 2016

There has been much speculation during the electoral campaign season whether there is still something President Obama could do before the end of his term to change the course of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Most of this speculation has focused on the possibility President Obama would finally support a UN Security Council resolution that spells out terms of reference for a two-state agreement, ending Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
The critical moment of decision for such a presidential intervention is now, as Israel is about to cross a line with its illegal settlement project that permanently precludes a two-state solution, having transferred over six hundred thousand Israeli Jewish settlers beyond the pre-1967 Green Line, Israel’s internationally recognized border. Having lost their struggle for self-determination and separate statehood, Palestinians may decide to launch a new popular struggle for citizenship and equal rights in the de facto Greater Israel that has been imposed on them.
Yet it is precisely this impending loss of the option of separate Palestinian statehood that may have opened an opportunity for a two-state agreement that did not exist until now. It is that opportunity, not a return to futile negotiations, that a final Middle East peace initiative by President Obama should focus on.http://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-president-obama-must-tell-israel-before-january-18292