Intense deliberations are taking place between the members of the Quartet (United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia) to finalize a report on the obstacles to a two-state solution and the terms of reference for future negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

There is broad agreement among Quartet representatives on the necessity of sharply denouncing the settlement expansion policy of the Benjamin Netanyahu government and the incitement to violence by official organs of the PA. There is, at the moment, less of a consensus on the two-state solution policy platform that is being prepared by the Quartet. The US administration is the key for reaching such a consensus.

For now, according to a US diplomat in Tel Aviv who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, there is broad agreement on three main points. First, Quartet members share the position that borders must be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps. Also, they all agree that the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 should be mentioned in the policy platform as a basis for the two-state solution. This would anchor the principles and goals of an agreed-upon and just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem as well as normalization of relations between the Arab states and Israel. The third agreed-upon point is the need to emphasize in the report stringent security measures along the new borders and regional anti-terror cooperation.

There is still disagreement on the issues of East Jerusalem, on the definition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and on the timeline for negotiations.