MANY WHO believed in the feasibility of achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace have concluded that it is no longer a realistic hope, at least in the first term of the Obama presidency.

They are largely disillusioned by Israel’s dogged insistence on expanding settlements, even though Israel well knows that it angers Palestinians. They also fault President Obama for his focus on Israel’s self-destructive policy of putting settlements before peace. In doing so, though, they ignore a major transformation in the Middle East.

The emergence of Iran is seen by many as displacing Israel as the dominant power in the Middle East, making Tehran the main source of instability and vulnerability of regimes in the region.