After campaigning on a platform of discarding failed past formulas and bringing "fundamental change" to Washington, Senator Barack Obama has won his bid for the presidency.

Throughout the campaign, Obama and his supporters drew on the wisdom of Albert Einstein, frequently declaring that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result."

President-elect Obama has declared that pursuing a Palestinian-Israeli peace will be a top priority for his administration.

While some insiders suggest the new administration may side-step the issue in favor of domestic concerns, many analysts predict that the global importance of this issue will make it nearly impossible to ignore.

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In the spirit of exploring new approaches to solving old problems, the IMEU asked eight leading commentators in the U.S. and the Middle East to discuss their top policy recommendations for the new administration on attempts to revive the languishing Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

• Sen. James Abourezk, a former United States Senator and founder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.


• Mustafa Barghouthi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and former Palestinian Authority Minister of Communications.


• Nadia Hijab, a Senior Fellow at the Washington, DC-based Institute for Palestine Studies.


• Diana Buttu, a Palestinian citizen of Israel living in Ramallah, an attorney and former advisor to Palestinian negotiators.


• George Bisharat, a professor of law at University of California Hastings College of the Law, and frequent commentator on the Middle East.


• Omar Dajani, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team and professor of law at the University of the Pacific.


• Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman living in Ramallah and participant in the Palestine Study Group.


• Laila Al-Marayati, a Palestinian-American doctor and head of KinderUSA, and former presidential appointee under President Bill Clinton.

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Recommendation 1:

Avoid partial agreements in favor of a comprehensive, final-status agreement.


Nadia Hijab: "Obama will need to avoid the trap of supporting sequenced, confidence building steps. Previous initiatives of this sort have held the process hostage to security - and is a major reason why they were not implemented. Instead, the new administration should facilitate a mutual, comprehensive ceasefire by all sides, a freeze on the construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, and initiate serious moves to begin the dismantling of those settlements. The changes Israel has made in the occupied territories are illegal under international law and must stop, irrespective of how negotiations are proceeding on final-status issues."

Mustafa Barghouthi: "The promotion of respect for democracy in Palestine is essential - however, without a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue, this alone will not deliver any contribution to stability in the region. It is impossible to expect that Palestinians can develop a perfect democracy under the conditions of military occupation, therefore it is necessary to simultaneously support respect for democracy and the implementation of a final-status agreement that allows for the creation of a viable Palestinian state where that democracy can take root."


Diana Buttu: "The future Obama administration would be wise to learn from the mistakes of the past fifteen years and trade its focus on 'process' for an emphasis on substance. Previous administrations have focused their attention solely on bringing the parties together, without exerting adequate pressure to ensure that there is substance to what is being discussed, and that any significant progress is being made. There has tended to be a prevailing idea that 'any agreement is better than no agreement,' a concept which is fundamentally flawed."


Omar Dajani: "What is also desperately needed to bring about real progress in the peace process is a framework for comprehensive peace that enjoys broad international support. Unlike previous initiatives - such as the floundering Roadmap - new attempts at peacemaking should specify a final destination that clearly defines all terms of the final settlement, rather than relying on partial agreements and confidence-building measures. The reliance on partial agreements and confidence-building periods led to the failure of Oslo - as well as the increasing irrelevance of the Roadmap - and this failed formula should be discarded once and for all."


Laila Al-Marayati: "An Obama administration should revisit and invest more time in promoting acceptance of the Saudi Peace Initiative of 2002, which offers Israel full recognition by all Arab states in exchange for ending its occupation and agreeing to a just resolution to the refugee problem. This is one of the boldest moves on behalf of Israel's neighbors to have occurred in the last half-century - yet it received little, if any, attention or support from the U.S. government. While the initiative may leave some things to be desired - for example, it fails to adequately account for the needs and rights of Palestinian refugees - it should still be considered carefully."


Recommendation 2:


Restore American credibility as an honest broker between Palestinians and Israelis by playing a more even-handed role.


George Bisharat: "Obama must work to restore the standing of the United States as an honest broker between the parties to the conflict. For too long, American policy vis-a-vis Israel/Palestine has been dominated by partisans of Israel - such as Dennis Ross under President Clinton, and Elliot Abrams under President Bush. A new administration should undertake a thorough review of our Middle East policies, in which it hears from a wide range of experts of diverse perspectives, and define positions that reflect and advance American interests and values, including the principles of democracy and equal rights."


Mustafa Barghouthi: "We are not in need of another new American government that is biased in favor of Israel. If the Obama wishes to play a truly constructive role in Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking efforts, this would be a core issue to depart from. Palestinians overwhelmingly feel that the United States has too often been on Israel's side, and has failed to put pressure on the Israeli government to force even the slightest of concessions."


James Abourezk: "The Obama administration should reassess the amount of foreign aid the United States provides to Israel, and consider investing more in development in Palestine. Some of the money American taxpayers are freely giving - in many cases without their knowledge - to Israel should instead be diverted to the new Palestinian state to make up for the billions of U.S. dollars that Israel has used to destroy Palestine and Palestinian culture."


Sam Bahour: "Given that the United States, for the last 60 years, has been on the wrong side of history and has outright funded and supported Israel while it was in blatant violation of international law - and even U.S. laws as they apply to the use of American-made weapons - the U.S. should dismantle the ineffective so-called "Quartet" and take a neutral position in the United Nations Security Council on the Palestinian issue."



Recommendation 3:


Allow the principles of international law to be the driving force behind any resolution to the conflict.



George Bisharat: "One of the ways the new administration can bolster its respect is to reassert international law as the basis for Middle East peace negotiations. International law does not resolve all of the outstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinians, but for many - the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, the illegality of Israeli settlements - it provides relatively clear and definitive guidance to the parties based on neutral principles that are recognized by the international community. International law has the capacity to partially level the playing field between Israel - the vastly more powerful party - and the Palestinians, and thus to ensure that the terms of a resolution reflect justice and not simply power. A just peace, ultimately, will be more durable than one that is forced upon the Palestinians without addressing their fundamental rights."


Omar Dajani: "The Obama administration should note that agreements that stray from basic principles of international law and fairness will be extremely difficult to implement. Palestinians' rights have been recognized and reaffirmed by the international community on numerous occasions, and any agreement that deviates too far from the accepted norms of international law and justice will not result in a true and lasting peace."


Sam Bahour: "Obama should clearly announce the United States' adherence to international law as the only reference point for addressing the Palestinian-Israeli issue, be it the conflict or the resolution. This should apply to both parties, and would greatly advance the legitimacy of the negotiating process and any agreement that is formulated."



Recommendation 4:


Urge Israel to adopt the internationally-accepted land-for-peace option and fully withdraw from the Occupied Territories.


Diana Buttu: "It is essential that Obama and his advisors understand that chances of achieving a two-state solution are rapidly deteriorating due to Israel's continued settlement expansion in the West Bank and its refusal to withdraw from the Occupied Territories. Every border proposal Israel has ever offered to the Palestinians would have allowed Israel to maintain control over significant parts of the West Bank. Palestinians are often vilified for having rejected "generous offers" from Israel in the past, when in reality the Israelis have never offered to fully withdraw from the territories - a central Palestinian demand."


James Abourezk: "Obama must decide to exert the necessary pressure, and take an active role in the negotiations, securing some kind of guarantee that Israel will leave the occupied territories - including releasing its stranglehold on Gaza - without unrealistic conditions. That is, Israel should be willing - and if not, pressured - to fully withdraw from the territories once a comprehensive peace agreement is negotiated."


Laila Al-Marayati: "Obama should put America's interests first when considering policy in the Middle East. Israel's best interests and America's best interests don't always coincide - and a new administration owes it to the American people to make our own national interests - and not Israel's - the priority. Bringing about a full end to Israel's occupation and supporting the establishment of a viable Palestinian state are in the best interest of the United States, and these are the goals the next administration should pursue."



Recommendation 5:


Pursue an active role, and exert the necessary pressure to ensure Israel halts its settlement expansion and other measures that undermine the peace process.



James Abourezk: "Obama should take the conflict seriously. Too often, our leaders have only provided lip-service to the cause of peace, understanding that they can talk all they want, but unless the Israelis are seriously pressured - for example, through the withholding American financial aid - they are not about to give up any land. Israel is generally satisfied with maintaining the low-level conflict that results from its occupation of Palestinian lands."

Omar Dajani: "The importance of the United States role in bringing about a resolution to this conflict cannot be understated. Therefore, it is imperative that the incoming administration take an active, leading role in bringing the parties together - and should not hesitate to apply the necessary pressure to encourage them to make substantial progress toward a final-status agreement. In the past, the United States has taken a much too passive role, mostly leaving the two parties themselves responsible for advancing talks. Yet, precisely because both sides are weak - and the stakes are so high - a strong American presence is essential to bringing peace."

George Bisharat: "Obama must take decisive action to halt all forms of Israeli settlement activities in all parts of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Israel's unrelenting colonization of lands slated by the international community for a Palestinian state establishes substantial practical obstacles to attaining peace - in the form of the settlements and the settlers themselves - and also destroys trust among Palestinians that Israel actually wants peace instead of more land. These facts are widely known and recognized - even within our government - but the political will to take appropriate action has been lacking. Yet without a complete halt to Israeli settlement activity, there is absolutely no chance of a resolution of the conflict."


Recommendation 6:


Address the root causes of the conflict.


Diana Buttu: "Failure to address the root causes of the conflict has been a major failure of the peace process in the past, and a new administration would be wise to take into account this fact. It is often thought that this is a security conflict with political ramifications. In reality, it is an essentially political conflict rooted in the dispossession of the majority of the native Palestinian population sixty years ago upon the establishment of Israel. If the Obama administration fails to recognize the importance of this central aspect to peacemaking, and we - as Palestinians and Israelis - are unable to tackle these root causes of the conflict, we'll be lost."

George Bisharat: "Israel has consistently refused to alter its position of refusal and denial when it comes to the rights of Palestinian refugees, repeatedly declaring that it has no intention of acknowledging their legitimate rights under any terms. These rights are firmly established in international law, and have been repeatedly reaffirmed by the United Nations General Assembly. If the Obama administration truly seeks to achieve a lasting peace, it must understand the importance and centrality of the refugee issue, and furthermore must be willing to apply pressure on Israel to accept responsibility for the problem, and work toward the implementation of a just solution based on the principles of international law."


Recommendation 7:


Involve the international community and the United Nations in pursuing new approaches to solving the conflict.



Mustafa Barghouthi: "After the failure of Annapolis, we should discuss different approaches and push for an international conference through the United Nations in order to make peacemaking efforts more effective. The current situation has led to stagnation, and increasing loss of hope among Palestinians. A major international conference organized through the United Nations would offer Palestinians hope, and signal that the international community is serious about resolving the conflict."


Nadia Hijab: "There should be a much larger role for the international community in the peace process. Arab players in the region should be brought in to enable the Palestinian leadership to make peace and help to offset the power imbalance between Palestinians and Israelis. International actors should be brought in to protect the Israelis if they decide to take risks - and also to spread the burden on the new administration of taking on the Israeli right-wing, as well as the American Christian and Jewish right."