Is it surprising that the Israelis and Palestinians are still unable to come to some sort of agreement After all if the adjudicator in a mediation is firmly on your side why bother to concede anything to the enemy Conversely, why accept anything proposed by the adjudicator if you know his affections are biased towards the other side We know America’s neutrality is hopelessly compromised on this issue and it doesn’t pretend otherwise. Say something against Israel in the run-up to the US presidential elections and you won’t become president. And since that’s not going to change, the best thing one can hope is for America to simply withdraw from the peace process.Or is it Some have faith that Washington can be persuaded to adopt a more flexible and even-handed stance – that it can free itself from the influence of the hard-liners and be responsive to more liberal voices. For if America were not involved – if the most important global playmaker were excluded or pulled out of the negotiating process – then negotiations would become a charade; the power to force through compromises and enforce them will have gone. Uncle Sam may be a troublesome relative, but you’ll get nowhere without him.In our debate from February 2012, Mustafa Barghouti the Palestinian democracy activist and William Sieghart, Founder and Chairman of Forward Thinking, propose the motion. Roger Cohen the The New York Times columnist and Jeremy Ben-Ami, Founder and President of J Street, oppose the motion.