It has been five months since President Barack Obama went to Cairo and won over most of the Arab world with his declaration of justice. He stated that he would face down both Israel and Palestine in his quest for peace.

            That process – with its auspicious beginning – now seems to have hit a wall.

            Sadly, the president’s mediating hand has grown weaker and his charisma has fading at the same rate. All the parties involved are using the same old clichés and nobody is buying it anymore.

            The process is bogged down. The leaders of both sides are simply posturing and diplomacy is caught in some sort of inertia phase. Israel and Palestine also have other priorities at the moment. 

            The United States needs a whole new plan. President Barack Obama must take stronger stands and put tremendous pressure on the Israelis and Palestinians to get this peace process done. The proper response is to simply leave. Let them come to the United States to broker a deal.

            The start of this process was based over Israel to stop the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land as a token of good faith. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was prepared to adopt a policy of limitation on building new settlements east of Jerusalem.

            But roughly 3,000 new housing units have been commissioned. Netanyahu states that they will be completed. His reasoning? Construction must go on in East Jerusalem, as it cannot be part of a Palestinian state.

            There is no tone of peace on his mind. It gives reason for the Arab states to do nothing as well. It’s incredibly shortsighted to not allow Israel to have lasting peace with Palestine.

            The United States has been urging Arab states to demonstrate their own commitment to a peace deal. They hope that the Arab states will show a greater acceptance of Israel and grant overflight rights for Israeli commercial planes, or open trade offices in Israel.

            Instead of supporting such progressive ideas, the United States’ regional allies – Egypt and Saudi Arabia – are refusing to make any of their own gestures and are actively discouraging other Arab states from acting as well.

Another shortsighted choice considering increasing trading partners opens up economies for new opportunities to build their countries. It would allow governments to give the youth population of their countries a future of bettering their lives.

            George Mitchell, the Middle East envoy for the United States, has returned to the Middle East to bring some common sense to all parties involved. The point must be made that the United States’ patience is wearing thin; the country will not wait much longer for peace in the Middle East.

            If Israel and Palestine were serious peace Mitchells presence would be helpful start to the process. But his presence is meaningless considering the stall in the talks; Mitchell simply doesn’t have the clout to push the peace process forward.

            The Egyptians and the Saudis must be reminded that a peace deal is the best way to check extremism and Iran’s power. The other Gulf States, which insist that they are less hindered by ancient hatreds, must step out of the shadow and do the right thing.

            If President Obama is hoping to bring the Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to the peace table at the United Nations meeting later this month, he is going to have to increase the pressure on all of the region’s leaders.

            The United States has invested almost 10 months of stoking the fire for peace talks. Some say that the president should fly to Israel to address the Israeli people directly with a game-changing plan. But no one, least of all in Washington, seems to know what that plan might be.

            The only time that America has been able to advance peace in this process before has been after the Yom Kippur War, during the Camp David accords, and following the Lebanon War. But only when the Israelis and Palestinians have felt enough pain do they ask for America’s diplomacy.

            This is like watching the same movie over and over and hoping for a different ending. The president can use his better to help mitigate unemployment and the multitude of problems the United States is facing. The peace process always starts off as a sprint fast and strong however to achieve lasting peace it needs to be a marathon. The lackluster effort by both sides only furthers the cycle of violence in the region.

            If and when those two nations get serious, they’ll find the United States to help broker a deal. And when they do, the United States should push for a detailed plan with a two-state solution, complete with borders, and how to accomplish it on the table.