The positive perspective is that Washington has an enormous array of very moderate policy options that it could adopt even without going so far as becoming anything like an “honest broker” with an impartial attitude, without impairing Israeli security, without ending the US-Israeli alliance, without even creating a Palestinian state (much less a viable, geographically continuous, defensible Palestinian state).

What Washington would have to do is focus on working with groups willing to bring a constructive attitude to the negotiating table rather than putting its eggs blindly in the basket of whatever Israeli politician happens to win an election. When Washington accepts that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the U.S.-Israeli alliance are all about three interacting societies, rather than being about some individual politician, then an historic breakthrough will have been achieved.