IT IS BECOMING CLEAR as a summer day that in the current environment, peace will not be achieved between Israel and Palestine. What is even more obvious is that the United States continues to disqualify itself as an impartial arbiter.

When President Barack Obama assumed office in January hopes were raised, especially in his historic telecast to the Muslim world, that he wanted a halt to all settlement activity in the occupied territory.

His refreshingly different policies and vision generated immense optimism and euphoria across the Middle East and round the world. Even Hamas, which shared a turbulent and hostile relationship with Washington, acknowledged and welcomed the positive change in United States foreign policy under Mr Obama.

However, this historic opportunity to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict that has poisoned the Middle East for nearly a century and dangerously destabilised relationships between Arabs and Jews faces the risk of being squandered yet again.

Last Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dashed these hopes in Abu Dhabi when she asked the Palestinian Authority to accept the plans currently under way for building more housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem.

Not surprisingly, this statement has brought harsh reaction in the Middle East. The Daily Star editorial on Monday said "it is a rare occasion whereby one praises another for continuing to violate international law".

It said the irony is apparently lost on Mrs Clinton who, at a joint Press conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, lauded his efforts to curb settlement construction as "unprecedented".

She followed by calling on Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas to enter into talks with Israel without insisting on a settlement freeze as a precondition.

This conflict has had a long and turbulent history. The Declaration of Principles signed in September 1993; the subsequent changes in it at Israel's behest by the Clinton administration at the Wye conference; the April 2003 road map and the Annapolis declaration in 2007 all fell by the wayside.

These current position signals a departure from President Obama's initial demands that Israel halt all settlement construction, including for natural growth, and, according to the Khaleej Times, represents a deeply cynical turn in efforts by the United States to solve the Israel-Palestine issue.

The Times said that some 500 000 settlers now live in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, in violation of several United Nations resolutions and a ruling by the International Court of Justice.

There is no doubt the continued expansion of settlements on land which would form part of a future Palestinian state is a significant barrier to peace. That the United Sates is now perceived as wavering and dithering is a frightening prospect for the less powerful in the world.

If the United States cannot use its power and influence to bring about a solution to this protracted problem, peace will not be achieved between Israel and Palestine.