WASHINGTON — If “the moment is now” to push for Mideast peace, as President Barack Obama asserted Friday in Germany, it might unfold with the administration looking to find a peacemaking role for Syria and exploring possibilities for dealing with Israel’s longtime foe, Hamas.
Obama raised expectations of progress at a particularly perilous point in the Arab-Israeli conflict. He faces a divided and hawkish Israeli government, a fractured Palestinian governing authority, a stubborn Iranian influence in the region and no obvious way forward to a lasting peace.
On Friday, the president announced he was sending his Mideast peace envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, back to the region to follow up on “a whole host of negotiation points.” The State Department said Mitchell will meet with Israelis, Egyptians, Jordanians and Palestinians next week.
He also intends to visit Syria, which would mark the highest-level U.S. visit there since Obama took office in January.
Obama has explained his goal — a reinvigorated peace effort — but left unclear how he will get there.
“This is a real problem, that the administration has identified a rhetorical policy, one that right now has no legs,” said Aaron David Miller, who served for two decades in the State Department as a senior Mideast policy adviser.
Obama has been clear about at least one element of his strategy: forcefully and publicly insisting that Israel needs to live up to what the Americans insist is a commitment to freezing the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Palestinians have long regarded that disputed land as part of a future state of their own.
At the same time, Obama is forging ahead on Syria, where U.S. relations have been in decline for years.
Syria and ally Iran are strong supporters of militant Islamic groups in the region, including Hamas. One possible motive for Obama’s outreach could be to get the Syrians to pressure Hamas to meet demands, including accepting Israel’s right to exist.
