Has The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Been Downgraded?

With President Clinton presiding, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, signed an interim peace accord at the White House in 1993. Twenty years later, President Obama is heading to the region with peace efforts in the deep freeze.
Ron Edmonds /AP With President Clinton presiding, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, signed an interim peace accord at the White House in 1993. Twenty years later, President Obama is heading to the region with peace efforts in the deep freeze.Ron Edmonds /AP
Every American president since Harry Truman has wrestled with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to no avail. Yet they keep trying based on the notion that the Middle East will never be calm until there's peace between these protagonists.
But as President Obama heads to Israel and the West Bank, expectations could hardly be lower. What's more, this long-standing feud, often seen as the Holy Grail of American diplomacy, no longer seems to hold the same urgency, according to many analysts.
The U.S. goal remains a two-state solution that provides security for Israel and a state for the Palestinians. And a new round of fighting could reverberate throughout the Middle East.