(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Against a backdrop of raging civil war in Syria and emerging chaos in Egypt, the New York Times asked in a report on Tuesday whether the Obama administration is doing the right thing by focusing now on advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, once a stark symbol and source of grievance in the Arab world, is now almost a sideshow in a Middle East consumed by sectarian strife, economic misery and, in Egypt, a democratically elected leader fighting for legitimacy with many of his people,” the article said.

Robert Blecher, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program of the International Crisis Group, told the New York Times, “The moment for this kind of diplomacy has passed.”

“[U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry] is working with actors who have acted in this movie before, and the script is built around the same elements. But the theater is new; the region is a completely different place today,” Blecher said.