Speculation has been rife for some time that President Barack Obama will use the presidential interregnum to make a legacy statement on Israel-Palestine. On the cards are a presidential speech that would lay out a suggested framework for a two-state solution, or, in what would be a diplomatic bombshell: using the UN Security Council to push a resolution that would either condemn settlements or even lay down guidelines and a timetable for a final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Over the past year the Obama administration has ratcheted up the pressure with increasingly harsh criticism of settlement construction and comments questioning the future of Israel as a democratic and Jewish state.
