Few countries engage in internal debates with the passion and intensity that one finds in Israel. And no debate has engendered more intensity in Israel than the one over how to achieve peace with the Palestinians. Which makes it all the more striking that, today, Israelis have reached a quiet consensus on one key point: President Barack Obama needs to make some urgent changes to his Mideast push for peace.
Just what exactly Obama should change is, of course, far from agreed. Washington may never satisfy the demands of Israelis on the extreme right who insist on keeping the West Bank, the biblical land of the Jews. But Obama would do well to pay attention to a growing chorus rising from the Israeli left, people who largely agree with the administration's overall goals. Israeli peace activists are all but begging Obama to adjust his course before he destroys the chances for peace.
Their principal worry is that Obama is losing the Israeli public.