Putting a duck on a perch

Driven by expediency and short-term crisis management, it is unlikely that the Israeli-Palestinian talks will achieve much

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are the linchpin of the Middle East peace process. The long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most intractable conflicts. Promoting negotiations between the Arab world and Israel and avoiding turbulence and conflicts in the Middle East is in line with the United States' strategic interests and has been one of Washington's diplomatic priorities.

Thanks to the importance and complexity of the peace talks, historically, whether US presidents could promote the peace process has been seen as a touchstone for their diplomatic achievements and political legacy. A photo of the leaders from Israel and the Arab world shaking hands with the US president standing in the middle beside them is regarded as proof of such an achievement.

However, apart from a historic peace treaty between Egypt and Israel brokered by former US president Jimmy Carter in 1979 (the Camp David Summit convened by former US president Bill Clinton in 2000 failed to seal a Palestinian-Israeli peace treaty on the eve of complete success), efforts by other US administrations have never managed to bear tangible fruit. Therefore, in order to "leave a legacy" in the history of US diplomacy, President Barack Obama is having a go at cracking this tough nut.

Furthermore, the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks this time was achieved in the context of radical political changes in the Middle East and North Africa. The outbreak of the "Arab Spring" that engulfed the Arab world resulted in several political strongmen stepping down, the quick rise of Islamic forces, and a military conflict in Syria that is still raging. After the "Arab Spring", Israel's external environment worsened.

In November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a resolution that elevated the status of the Palestinian Authority from a "non-member observer entity" to a "non-member observer state". With the annual UN General Assembly coming up in September, the US and Israel are worried that if the peace process has not made any progress by then, the Palestinian leader will call on the international community to press Israel at the UN General Assembly and resort to taking unilateral actions for a Palestine state. Therefore, no wonder an Israeli official, on condition of anonymity, said that the talks would take months to unfold and such a duration was needed "to ensure the process is substantive and comprehensive, and to get us past September".

"The best way to give these negotiations a chance is to keep them private," Kerry said. In order to create an atmosphere conducive to peace talks, Israel has agreed to release a number of Palestinian prisoners, while the Palestinians have agreed not to take unilateral actions to seek recognition for their statehood claim during the peace talks.