RAMALLAH, West Bank In the 14 months since revolution has spread across the Middle East and tension

n has soared over Irans nuclear program, the Palestinian leadership has found itself orphaned. Politically divided, its peace talks with Israel collapsed and its foreign support waning, the Palestinian Authority is sidelined, confused and worried that its people may return to violence. The biggest challenge we face apart from occupation is marginalization, Salam Fayyad, Follow @nytimesworld for prime minister of the Palestinian international Authority, said in an interview. This breaking news and headlines. is a direct consequence of the Arab Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Spring where people are preoccupied with their own domestic affairs. The United States is in an Readers Comments election year and has economic problems, Europe has its worries. Were in a corner. For decades, as autocrats ruled Share your thoughts. their neighbors, the Palestinians were at the center of Post a Comment Read All Comments (72) Middle Eastern politics, their struggle with Israeli occupation embodying the Arab longing for post-colonial freedom and dignity. The Obama administration came into office asserting that a state in the West Bank and Gaza was the key to regional progress.
Connect With Us on Twitter

But when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington this week, the conversation was dominated by Iran, not peace talks or occupation. In the region, the Arab Spring may have increased popular attention to the Palestinian cause, freeing Egyptians and others to express anti-Israel sentiments. But that has actually made things harder on the Palestine Liberation Organization, which negotiated with Israel. Popular affection has shifted to the Islamists of Hamas. They too have difficulties, however, abandoning their political headquarters in Syria, facing reduced help from Iran and contending with their increased divisions. The result is a serial splintering of the Palestinian movement, a loss of state sponsors and paralysis for those trying to build a state next to Israel. Just six months ago, there was a moment of optimism when the Palestinian Authority presented its case for recognition to the United Nations, and later when Hamas closed a deal to free hundreds of its prisoners in exchange for the release of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. But now, as momentum for a peaceful two-state solution fades, and the effort at the United Nations remains stymied, no viable alternatives have emerged and attention has focused on other conflicts. Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security at Al Quds University in Jerusalem, said he recently joined dozens of other foreign scholars for a series of lectures on his specialty in the United States. Not a single one mentioned the Palestinian issue. I dont see Palestine on the agenda of the United States or Israel, he said. It is on the shelf. The Palestinians dont have the ability to impose themselves on the world and they cant mobilize their people. The Arab world is busy. The Palestinians are becoming secondary. President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, known for indecisiveness, seems especially torn on how to proceed. He and his lieutenants have been working for weeks on a multipage letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, laying out all the reasons they believe that Israel has stood in the way of peaceful progress. He plans to deliver a copy to American and European leaders as well, explaining why he thinks he must abandon the Israeli peace track and reconsider the Palestinian Authoritys relationship with Israel. And while diplomats are sympathetic with his frustration over Israels refusal to stop settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, they suspect that Mr. Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, feels politically unable to compromise with