A Palestinian Muslim woman argues with an Israeli soldier as she queues to cross from the West Bank town of Qalqilya into Jerusalem on September 3, 2010 to attend the last Friday prayer of the holy month of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest shine.ABBAS MOMANI/AFP / Getty Images
Yet another round in the Israel-Palestine peace process was rolled out with U.S. encouragement this week. As with many negotiations, what is happening away from the bargaining table will threaten to overshadow what the leaders say to each other at the table. Both sides must realize that they cannot let outside distractions pull them away from advances, however small, which can be made.
The leaders approach the talks under the shadow of failure and violence. The last time Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, met an Israeli prime minister was in November, 2007, at the Annapolis Conference. Although the notion of a two-state solution was endorsed by both sides then, the process was rushed, in no small part by president George W. Bush, who urged the sides to come to a deal in just a year (a time frame that coincided with the end of his own term).
Since then, the violent Hamas faction has tightened its hold over the Gaza Strip, and a less conciliatory Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has taken power, and no permanent deal, or even a framework toward one, has been reached. Expectations for this new set of negotiations may be lower than for any other leader-to-leader peace talks in decades.
The main immediate obstacle is Mr. Netanyahu's uncertain position on new settlements in the West Bank. He authorized new settlements soon after taking office, but then placed a moratorium on their expansion. The moratorium ends on Sept. 24, and the Palestinians will rightly see any resumption of settlement construction as an act of bad faith, since it would be taking place during negotiations about those very lands.
Another threat to the talks is Iran. It has a long history of meddling in Middle East peace-making, and could, through proxies in Jordan and Lebanon and within Hamas, increase the costs of negotiating, by terrorizing not just Israelis, but peace-seeking Palestinians and Arabs as well.
Iran's nuclear ambitions will also complicate the picture. Should Israel make any sort of pre-emptive strike against Iran - some reporting suggests that is being planned - negotiations with the Palestinians would likely be swept aside in the ensuing conflagration.
All of these forces will pull Mr. Abbas and Mr. Netanyahu away from the talks. Both sides will have to be energetic in selling small successes to weary domestic constituencies. It won't be easy - Mr. Abbas has little way of reaching into Gaza, and Mr. Netanyahu may still be tempted by the short-term political advantage to be gained in playing the hard-liner.
But at least the talks are happening, and indeed will continue, two weeks hence, in Egypt. The leaders cannot raise hopes for a comprehensive agreement right away. But they need to show that the promise of peace is worth some persistence, no matter how small the early successes, and how brazen the opponents of peace.