Everyone agrees that the London meeting is potentially a critical chapter in the peace process which either opens up the hope for continuation or closes an important chapter of history,

the legal status of the territories could not be more beside the point.

It's the first time that this administration gives evidence that it is prepared to roll up its sleeves and to do some hard work that goes beyond simply the rhetorical declarations of support for a two states solution.

If the US really wants to see progress, it must be prepared at the highest level of government to do this kind of work directly with the parties. And so far they had not done that.

At the end of that (peace) process, a Palestinian state was always inevitable, ... What other attribute could the territory that would be left to the Palestinians have?

You can't make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can't make peace without Syria.