Ask the Expert: Moran Banai on Israel and Palestine

What is the Obams administration's strategy for Israel and Palestine?

The Obama administration's strategy toward is Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to look at it as a region a problem, so it's not just about Israelis and Palestinians, it's about Israel and the entire Arab world. So if Israel makes peace with Syria, and Lebanon, and the Palestinians, it can have peace with all of its neighbors. The other part of the strategy is to look at it comprehensively, so you want the Israelis and Palestinians, or the Israelis and Syrians or Lebanese, to sit down at the table talking about the issues at the core of their conflict. So refugees, settlements, but at the same time you want to make sure that people are board. Israelis need to see that Palestinians are living up the things that they have already committed to like fighting terror. Palestinians need to see that Israelis living up the things they have committed to, like stopping settlements. On top of that, both sides need to feel that there is a change on the ground--that their day-to-day lives are getting better because of what's going on. So Israelis need to feel more secure, and Palestinians need to feel that they can move around, that they have freedom, and that they can build up their economy.

Does Netanyahu's speech change anything?

Netanyahu's speech was important for several reasons. The first is that for the first time he said he was committed to a two-state solution--a state of Israel, granted living next to a demilitarized Palestinian state. That's the second part. Netanyahu has already layed out his conditions. He wants to see acceptable by the Arab world and by Palestinians of Israel's Jewish nature. He wants the future Palestinian space to demilitarized, not to have control over its airspace--things that might not be agreeable to the other side, so it's really an opening gambit on his part.

How does President Obama approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict differ from President Bush's?

President Obama's approach differs from President Bush's approach in three ways. First of all, President Obama started on day one. In his first day of office, he called the Israeli prime minister, the Palestianian president, the king of Jordan, and the president of Egypt, something which was unheard of. Usually you start with the prime minister of Canada. And so, from the beginning he showed that he was committed and invested, and he appointed on his second day George Mitchell, a very credble envoy, to lead the process. Number two, President Obama has brought in the whole Arab world. He's not just looking at it as an Israeli-Palestinian question. And third, President Obama has made it very clear that he is going to expect all sides to live up to their commitments from the beginning. That means that he is pushing the Israelis on settlements and he is also pushing the Palestinians to fight terror.