Hour of decision

Seven years have passed since the Arab League came out with its proposal to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for an end to the occupation and a just, mutually agreed solution to the refugee problem. According to the road map peace plan, which the Quartet submitted to the parties in early 2003, the Israeli-Arab conflict should have come to an end more than three years ago.

A year and a half ago, the previous prime minister, Ehud Olmert, pledged at the Annapolis conference to strive to reach a final-status agreement based on the two-state principle before the end of former president George W. Bush's term in office. And on the eve of his departure for his first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated the settlers' old refrain about their children's right to build their homes in "Judea and Samaria."

Since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000, successive Israeli governments have become expert at inventing excuses for diplomatic foot-dragging. Freezing negotiations on a final-status solution became the ultimate "punishment" Israel inflicted on the Palestinians for terror attacks, Hamas' electoral victory and its takeover of the Gaza Strip. The effort to avoid establishing new facts in our relationship with the Palestinians was accompanied by efforts to establish new facts in the territories. From the perspective of the settlers and their collaborators in the Israeli establishment, time has not stood still.

President Obama, who will host Netanyahu on Monday, misses no opportunity to make it clear to the parties that the time for all the old excuses has passed. To formulate strategic understandings with the United States and forge a relationship of trust with the president, Netanyahu should shelve the "Iran-first" approach and come to Washington with proposals to move ahead simultaneously on two tracks: the fight against Iran's sponsorship of terror and its nuclear program, and the Israeli-Arab peace process.

It would also be better for the prime minister not to hide behind old excuses such as the exigencies of his domestic coalition or the weakness of the Palestinian government. The messages Obama transmitted through King Abdullah of Jordan show that the president is determined to make a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict the fulcrum of his foreign policy.

The demographic clock is also not working in Israel's favor. More and more Palestinians are urging a withdrawal from the Oslo process, whose main contribution for the past 15 years or more has been to give an international stamp of approval to continued settlement. Netanyahu must take into account the danger that sooner, rather than later, a government may take control on the Palestinian side as well that rejects the two-state solution and opposes any compromise on Jerusalem or the refugees.

The hour of decision is now here. Israel will not benefit from continued diplomatic foot-dragging, either in its relations with its Arab neighbors or in its relations with the international community, first and foremost the United States. The Israeli-Arab conflict has proven again and again that lack of progress pushes the parties backward. In another year, the prime minister may not be able to attain for the same price that he can today.