We are experienced a substantive difference these past two days over the previous administration as President Barack Obama wades into his new job. The rolling out of the new Middle East special envoy, George Mitchell, who will spearhead the latest attempt at achieving peace in the Levant, is heartening.

Resolving the conflict there should be foreign policy issue number one. Many who read this are probably saying this is a crazy notion. We are in two wars and we are less than a decade from being attacked on our own soil. But as we have learned about the Middle East, as Jerusalem goes, so goes the rest of the region. One of the overriding reasons why terrorists struck us in 2001 was over our support of Israel. This fact is not going to change. Our guilt of recent Jewish history and over a half a century of a shared alliance, Israel’s dependence on American support is an established component of our foreign policy. Even though this alliance has outgrown its usefulness when the Soviet Empire crumbled, the strength of the Israel lobby has grown so strong in the halls of Congress that  to abandon the Jewish state now seems unlikely. Though President Obama will not change our policy toward Israel significantly, he does have an opportunity to be fair.

The situation in Gaza is a disgrace and Israel shares a large portion of the blame for what is going on there. Gaza is a ghetto. It is the repository for six decades of displaced Arabs who were forced from their homes in the aftermath of WW II and the holocaust. Jews, who had experienced such oppression, should know better than to treat the indigenous people of Palestine in such a way. Leaderless, poverty stricken and filled with the rage of injustice, those living in the slums of Gaza have no concept of hope. Some  have joined Hamas in an attempt to even the score of 60 years of destitution and humiliation.  Israel’s latest incursion into Gaza has further fueled rage and resentment.

The other Palestinian enclave, the West Bank, is not much better. Israel has encroached on Palestine, building settlements and further reducing the land reserved for Arabs. After the second (and more violent) intifatha, Israel constructed a barrier, further isolating Arab communities within the West Bank. After the death of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, the leadership in the West Bank has become more moderate. Mahmoud Abbas seeks peace. Unfortunately, the Israelis are unwilling to return their gains. With events these past two months, now is not the best time to begin peace talks, but it is necessary.

For America’s security it is vital that the conflict be resolved. If Obama’s diplomatic team can find a way through the maze of war there, America will be a champion within the region once more; not with bombs but with treaties.

It would be satisfactory if Israel simply traded all the land they have occupied since the 1960s for peace. Not probable, but there is a better solution. Palestine is fractured and divided. Gaza festers against the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt with most of it surrounded by Israel. It depends on the Jewish state for most of its resources. No true people can live under such an arrangement, especially dependant on the country they distrust the most. This is one reason the enclave has radicalized. There is another solution but the terms would be much harder to initiate. The territory of Gaza should be turned over to Israel. The land of Gaza should be measured and the exact same amount of land should be extended to the West Bank along its Northeastern border east of Nazareth. All Jewish settlements should be returned to the Palestinians in the West Bank. To ensure a lasting peace, prosperous Persian Gulf states should become benefactors in the process. Many of these states provide free education abroad for their citizens. This program could be extended to Palestinians. The new Palestine will need massive improvements in infrastructure. The land size is not vast and wouldn’t require unrealistic amounts of wealth to make the area livable. For the world, it would be worth resolving the situation. To fix the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is like unlocking the key to the region. If America can lead the world and find the solution, the US will gain the respect of the Arab world, something lacking in recent years. Nations like Syria and Iran will have no choice but to buy into the changes that are created by a peace deal and this would take away their ace in the hole. Middle Eastern despots have always used the Palestinians as a cause by which they can divert the focus away from their own internal problems. And for the United States, bringing peace to the Holy Land and withdrawing successfully from Iraq  would shift the entire focus toward completing the final step in making America truly secure. We would be Afghanistan away from returning to normalcy.

The task before President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and Special Envoy Mitchell is a daunting one, it is one that involves the future security of the United States. The sooner we realize this the sooner we can broker a lasting peace.

Can George Mitchell Fix the Middle East?