MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
NPR's Michele Kelemen put those questions to Americans who've been involved in the peace negotiations.
MICHELE KELEMEN: A former ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, has been writing about U.S. mediation efforts in the Middle East and says there are some lessons to be drawn from the latest leaked documents.
DANIEL KURTZER: Assuming the information in the papers is close to reality, it raises very substantial questions as to why the Bush administration didn't understand that there had been a significant narrowing of differences, and that a big push a couple of years ago might actually have advanced this process rather substantially.
KELEMEN: Kurtzer, who now teaches at Princeton University, says the Obama administration also comes across as reluctant to put ideas on the table. He says the leaks would show that the Palestinians were ready in 2008 to make major compromises, should push the Obama administration to, quote, "get its act together" and show some leadership.
KURTZER: The gaps are far narrower than people would have assumed. And therefore, if the administration has been waiting for that narrowing to put forward a bridging position, it now has evidence that the bridge can be built.
KELEMEN: Another U.S. veteran of the peace process, Robert Danin, of the Council on Foreign Relations, cautions against reading too much into the documents.
ROBERT DANIN: And so, those who believe that a negotiated settlement is possible will be bolstered by these revelations. Those who believe that the Israelis are not serious will point to certain things here and say that that's what it demonstrates.
KELEMEN: One thing is clear, Danin adds, the leaks will make it harder for the Obama administration to revive talks.
DANIN: And that I think was its design. It was released by people who think that the negotiations do not serve Palestinian interests and that this is not the way to go.
KELEMEN: The leaks come at a time when Palestinians are already working on Plan B, taking their cause to the United Nations to try to win Palestinian statehood. Former Ambassador Kurtzer says the leaks will give more impetus to this push at the U.N.
KURTZER: The argument now is, look how far we went, we didn't get anything in return, so why shouldn't we go to the U.N.?
KELEMEN: And what should the U.S. response be to that, do you think?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KURTZER: If I were the administration now, I'd be very worried because there is not a good response.
KELEMEN: As State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley repeated today, New York is not the place to resolve the conflict.
CROWLEY: The best and only way to fundamentally resolve the core issues, reach an agreement and end the conflict once and for all is through a negotiation, not through unilateral statements, unilateral actions.
KELEMEN: Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.