The current Middle East swing by Secretary of State Colin Powell is the first Bush administration attempt in a year to become directly involved in negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel. And the administration believes the timing could not be better. Powell has traveled to the region amid a growing air of optimism, at least in Washington, based on the Bush administration’s proposed Road Map to peace and the emergence of a Palestinian prime minister who it says could clamp down on attacks against Israelis.

But awaiting Powell are obstacles that could scupper the latest push for peace. While, for instance, the Palestinians say the two sides must walk the road together, Israel insists that the Palestinian Authority must first disarm and arrest “terrorist organizations” in the West Bank and Gaza. The future status of Palestinian refugees is emerging as one other big difference between the two sides. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said the success of the new peace initiative will depend on the Palestinians giving up their demand that the refugees and their families be allowed to return to their former homes in Israel. Sharon called the right of return “a recipe for the destruction of Israel” because it would flood Israel with Arabs. He has said the renunciation by Palestinians is something Israel insists on and sees it as a condition for continuing the process. The right of return is a cornerstone of Palestinian policy. Almost four million Palestinians are registered with the United Nations as refugees and Israel must take the blame for having created them following its own creation.

In Israel yesterday, Powell tried to allay Palestinian fears on both counts. At a news conference he said Israel should not “gloss over” Palestinian demands for the right of return. He gave no indication that Israel would open its doors to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees but said if those leaders “will be ready to move for us toward peace, we will be able to move together in order to achieve peace.” And on the notion of reciprocity, Powell said one positive step was Sharon’s apparent decision to drop Israel’s long-time insistence that all violence against it must end as a condition for the peace process to move ahead. “I haven’t heard Israelis talk of total calm,” Powell said.

Powell’s visit has one crucial goal: To remind the parties concerned that the United States has not forgotten what and where the true Middle East conflict is. Trips to the Middle East by American secretaries of state have been frequent, but Powell has not made one for a year, under rising criticism that the administration was more interested in making war on Iraq than helping negotiate peace between Palestinians and Israel. Over the weekend, President Bush attempted to show where his priorities now lie. “If the Palestinian people take concrete steps to crack down on terror, continue on a path of peace, reform and democracy, they and all the world will see the flag of Palestine raised over a free and independent nation.”

In the year since Powell’s last visit, the administration has spent perhaps more time negotiating the Road Map than it has talking with the two sides, particularly with the Palestinians. The Powell trip is meant to show that a renewed, more active American role is about to take place.