Palestinian President Abbas's plan to seek statehood status at the UN next week has spurred new crisis-diplomacy efforts, but political pressures on all sides could make a deal hard to come by, says analyst Ziad Asali.

The Washington Post's Colum Lynch analyzes the Palestinian quest for UN state recognition, which highlights the role of the international organization despite its inability to resolve the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

Daniel Senor states, "New York's special congressional election on Tuesday was the first electoral outcome directly affected by President Obama's Israel policy."

Robert Danin argues that by adopting a publicly confrontational approach, the Palestinians risk undermining the goodwill and security that Fayyad's nation-building program has so painstakingly created.

The recent mob attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo spotlights the fragility of Israel-Egypt relations, but the Egyptian military will strive to restore the peace between the two nations, says former U.S. ambassador Frank G. Wisner.

The recent flare up of hostilities along the Israel-Egypt border signals a hardening of Egypt's stance toward Israel and further difficulties for the sluggish Mideast peace process, says expert David Makovsky.

Elliott Abrams argues that after thirty months of Obama Middle East policy, the popularity and prestige of the United States have declined and negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians appear to be dead in the water.

In his piece for Aviation Week, David Eshel looks at Israel's new multiyear defense plan, which covers such emerging concerns as potential threats from the Arab Spring, BMD, and cyberwarfare.

Two recent books on the Israeli settlements explore their corrosive effect on Zionism and Israeli society.

Elliott Abrams discusses a recent letter from a group of American leaders urging President Obama to adopt a Middle East policy far more critical of Israel.

In this piece for Foreign Policy, Senior Research Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine Hussein Ibish looks at the Palestinians concerns about recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, specifically in response to Prime Minister Netanyahu's increasing demand for Israel's recognition as a prerequisite to peace.

Fareed Zakaria, a frequent opinion writer for the Washington Post, argues that it is Prime Minister Netanyahu and not so much President Obama, who has dramatically shifted his foreign policy strategy.

In this piece for The New Republic, William Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and contributing editor, looks at the diverging priorities and strained relationship between Netanyahu and Obama.

Tim Lister, a writer for CNN, looks at the significance of the change to Israel's border after the Six Day War in 1967.

Senior political writer for the Daily Beast and Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, Peter Beinart, writes that Netanyahu's response to Obama's parameters for Palestinian and Israeli peace was nothing short of bizarre.

In this opinion piece for the Financial Times, Michael Herzog, a Fellow at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, argues that if Israel wishes to garner international support it must outline its own peace initiative.

Leslie H. Gelb says that President Obama's speech on the Middle East was sensible, courageous, and fair, but it has been challenged for reasons good and bad in a region unable to transcend its ancient grudges.

Elliott Abrams discusses President Obama's suggestion that Israel return to its 1967 borders.

In an interview conducted by Edmund Sanders of the Lost Angeles Times in Jerusalem, Ehud Barak, Israeli Defense Minister, discusses Netanyahu's US trip, Israel's need to make a bold peace proposal, and whether Israel can work with the newly unified Palestinian Authority.

Robert Danin argues that President Obama, in his speech on the Middle East, provided an American response to the Middle East uprisings that was bold and ambitious, but his plans for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement lacked a clear way forward.