Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is attempting to drum up support for his peace plan.
He claimed that Europe had responded favourably to his conditions for a peaceable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, a refusal to resettle Palestinian refugees within Israel proper and that any future Palestinian state would be denied the right to an army or control over its borders and airspace.
According to Mr Netanyahu, with the world backing his plan, not the opposition’s, it was time for his critics in the Knesset to “act responsibly”. But his speech smacked of desperation. Mr Netanyahu avoided mentioning one important sticking point between Israel and the world while he was haranguing his opponents: the settlements.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, arrives in Washington today. There is speculation that the trip is an attempt to offer a temporary “freeze” in settlement construction rather than the indefinite one that Barack Obama is demanding.
Israeli media is reporting that Mr Barak will offer a three-month freeze on any new construction, including so-called natural growth, except for buildings near completion. In all probability, this will be rejected by Washington. The US needs this concession from Israel or it risks endangering its plan to achieve a breakthrough in the peace process.
Mr Obama’s call for a settlement freeze received a boost from the Quartet on the Middle East (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations). On Friday, the Quartet and the foreign ministers from the Group of 8 issued statements calling for Israel to abide by the US demands for a complete freeze in settlement construction.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, reiterated this to Mr Netanyahu during a joint press conference last week. Yet the Israeli government still struggles to find wriggle room on this issue despite the growing consensus on the need to halt settlement construction, completely.
The problem is that Mr Netanyahu cannot agree to a settlement freeze without endangering his political future. Agreeing to these demands would alienate vital coalition partners, perhaps leading to the dissolution of his government.
Mr Netanyahu feels, perhaps rightly, that the US is hoping that his government will in fact fail, and that Kadima, led by Tzipi Livni, will take up the reins of power in Israel. That is why he is seeking a unified stance behind his conditions. He is trying to send a message to the US that even if he steps aside, Israel will never agree to the demands being made of it.
With the showdown on the settlements turning into a crisis for Mr Netanyahu, there may seem to be little chance that progress towards peace and Palestinian statehood will be made. While the Arab world has little control over what Israel can do, it can and should do much more to make it increasingly clear that Israel’s intransigence is the biggest barrier to peace.
It may seem to make little sense to offer concessions to an Israeli government that seems determined to derail the peace process. But the more that the Arab world plays its part in bringing a peaceful resolution to the 60-year-old conflict, the more the US’s leverage with Israel will grow, and the closer peace and Palestinian statehood will become.
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