Concurrently, the regional situation has dictated a focus on combatting terrorism and finding a resolution to the ongoing situation in Syria, sidelining the Palestinian issue on the US agenda. It seems the US will continue to pay the price of positions and policies that are blind to the truth and ignore the reality of the situation, especially in Syria and Palestine. The US Administration was convinced the Palestinian Authority did not have the capacity to survive politically, let alone be a reliable partner for negotiations. With divisions between Fatah and Hamas, as well as within Fatah itself combined with an apparent failure in domestic politics and the exploitation of the power wielded by the organization by a small group, the Americans interpreted all of this as impotence and incendiary. All the while, authority in Palestine has remained stable.

The Americans made similar mistakes in Syria, confecting the moderate opposition from disparate groups, and positioning them as a replacement for Bashar Al Assad. The US has now effectively declared war with the majority of these disparate groups, and is back to the drawing board in search of a moderate opposition. These are the same mistakes the US has made in combatting terrorism over decades. During the Geneva II negotiations, the debate was between two priorities, combatting terrorism or political transition. The US insisted on political transition, but has now been forced to accept the immediate priority is to address the growing threat of terrorism in the region. At the same time, the US has chosen to heavily politicize the issue by excluding Syria, Egypt, Iran and Russia from the coalition combatting terrorism.

 The US continues to prioritize an issue or an approach and is forced to abandon that priority, and then deal with the consequences and impacts. However, it isn’t just the US that must deal with these mistakes, its allies and enemies are forced to adopt a flexible diplomacy in order to deal with the challenges that these mistakes are generating

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