The ball is now in Obama's court, according to Professor Yaacov Bar Siman Tov of the Department of International Relations of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Now that it looks as though there will be a tripartite meeting in September, it is up to Obama to propose the next steps, he said.

An alternative idea, coming from an arguably surprising corner, is that US Obama administration's push for greater active Arab involvement in the peace process, calling the Arab states to offer some goodwill gestures towards Israel to persuade the Israelis of the value of their cutting a final-status deal with the Palestinians.

Several Arab countries, including Qatar, Oman, Morocco and Mauritania have indicated they will be prepared to restore some form of diplomatic relationship with Israel once a freeze has been implemented.

Another gesture that would be of tremendous benefit to Israel would be if the Arab world would allow Israeli commercial aircraft to fly through its airspace. At the moment, flights to and from Asia and Africa take far longer than necessary because Israeli planes are not permitted to fly over Arab countries.

However, some Arab states like the Saudis are skeptical of Obama's push. Over the last three weeks, some Saudi officials have said that Israel should not be rewarded until it fulfills all its obligations under international law. The Saudi-initiated Arab peace offer of a normalization of relations with Israel should only be applied once Israel withdraws from all the territory it captured in the 1967 war, Riyadh argues.

Iran concern

Media reports in the Hebrew press in Israel suggest Netanyahu is asking the US and Europe to impose tougher sanctions on Iran, as part of a broader deal that would include the settlement freeze.

"I think it's a mistake to link these issues, which are separate," said Bar Siman Tov, who puts forward something of an argument of apples and pears.

Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, argues that, while the Iran issue is of no interest to the Palestinians whatsoever, the fact is that Israel has made that linkage and Obama also perceives a connection, albeit from a very different point of view.

"Netanyahu sees them as organically linked, with Iran being the principle and primary focus and the Palestinian issue being a secondary consequence," said Ibish.

"Obama has very clearly stated in the presence of Netanyahu, that the Palestinian issue is related to Iran as a means of strengthening the American presence in the Middle East generally, which allows the United States therefore to successfully take a tougher line with Iran," Ibish told Xinhua on Wednesday.

While this discussion has no direct impact on the Palestinians, their leadership is looking at other key factors as the possibility of negotiations appears in the horizon. Perhaps first among them is Netanyahu's ability to deliver.

Ibish maintains that Netanyahu is a pragmatist who has been able to deliver to some extent in the past. Back in 1996, when Netanyahu became prime minister for the first time, he had said he would never meet then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Two years later, Netanyahu had met Arafat and signed the Wye River Memorandum, which established security arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank.

However, as Ibish points out, while Netanyahu may want to push the process forwards, his hands are tied by domestic political considerations. He heads a hawkish government, which will not accept the type of agreement that the Palestinians and Americans want to see put in place. If Netanyahu moves too quickly or too far he could be committing political suicide.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2009)