Jeffrey Goldberg and other Israel advocates argue that Israel/Palestine is not a big deal. But it is a big deal. Have you seen the headlines from Qatar’s US-Islamic forum? Islamic states think the US should stop the settlements.
And many of them care about Gaza:
[T]he situation in Gaza seemed to be a focal point at the conference, with the Turkish Prime Minister and Qatari Prime Minister both speaking passionately about resolving the humanitarian crisis
And Philip Seib at Huffpo echoes that report:
When Hillary Clinton addressed the U.S.-Islamic World Forum here on Sunday night, she found the going smooth…until she hit the bump of Gaza. A group of religious leaders, whose spokesman was Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., asked why the Obama administration could not do more to help the beleaguered residents of Gaza, whose supplies of food, water, and medicine are barely at survival level.
…Secretary Clinton replied that the United States was doing all it could to get Israel to let "the trickle of supplies become a steady flow," and then allow America and Arab states to rebuild Gaza’s schools and hospitals. Her message: U.S. influence has its limits.
Even at a conference featuring much constructive talk about improving the institutions of civil society and enhancing dialogue between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds, the gravitational pull of Palestine was always present. The rhetoric of reconciliation dominated, but there were also comments about "the foggy vision through which the United States looks at the Arab world," and insistence that U.S.-Arab relations cannot substantively improve until Israeli-Palestinian disputes are resolved.
Oh here’s Clinton saying that the US has no leverage (from her official remarks):
I know people are disappointed that we have not yet achieved a breakthrough. The President, Senator Mitchell, and I are also disappointed. But we must remember that neither the United States nor any country can force a solution.
