“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”
Vinod Khosla to Larry Page

While Vinod Khosla made this comment in a different context, it seems to me to fit the upcoming conference on Israel and Palestine perfectly. In an op-ed piece in today's Washington Post (which for some reason does not seem to have made it to the web) Henry Kissinger says that the outcome of the peace talks should be clear -- a two state solution with a withdrawal of Israel to something like its boundaries before the expansion into the West Bank. Who am I to argue with Kissinger?

The situation spanning the geographic area from the Mediterranean to Afghanistan has gotten so much worse in this decade that it certainly can be classified as a crisis. The U.S. government has considerable leverage with the Israelis, and I think should use all of that leverage to push for real Israeli concessions in the current peace negotiations. I hope that the U.S. government and others will similarly use their influence with the parties in the region to promote the peace. Lets not waste this crisis, but rather use it to really advance the peace process!