And while Mitchell has urged the Israelis to do this, his report also says ending violence requires the Palestinian Authority to go out and arrest members of Hamas and other terrorist groups. So there are things that are unpalatable for both sides in the report. The Bush administration had hoped to take a more standoffish approach to the conflict, but it's now being forced to take a more active role. But the U.S. has few good policy options in this situation Everyone is frustrated by the escalating violence and wants the U.S. to do more, but nobody has any brilliant ideas on just what it could do to address the crisis. There's no course of action available to the U.S. right now that has even a reasonable chance of success.
Every option is fraught with political risk and even then carries only a slim chance of success.
Powell getting flak from both sides for the neutrality he's trying to maintain. It's very hard to be creative in foreign policy, especially when neither side accepts a need to be constrained. Right now, neither side sees any advantage to being the one to take the first step towards ending the violence. Both have painted themselves into positions where taking the first step would be counter to their principles and their domestic political climate. President Clinton would, no doubt, have been a lot more personally involved, but there's no reason to believe that would have been any more successful President Clinton, too, had a great deal of difficulty dealing with a Likud government.