As the world focuses on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian jetliner, we might be missing some all-too-rare signs of meaningful progress on the most intractable problem in the Middle East: achieving the long-sought two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Recent speeches by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contain unusually conciliatory language that gives rise to at least guarded optimism that Secretary of State John Kerry’s quiet diplomacy might be working.

An Associated Press story headlined “Abbas signals flexibility on ‘right of return’ ” describes a Feb. 16 speech by Abbas to hundreds of young Israeli activists. In his remarks, Abbas told the students that he does not want to “drown” Israel with Palestinian refugees, in what the AP describes as “his most conciliatory comments to date on one of the thorniest issues in Mideast peace talks.” The statement represents a major shift toward a new flexibility on the “right of return,” the demand that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, along with their descendants, be permitted to return to lost properties in the Jewish State.

About 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced from what became the State of Israel during the 1948 war, fleeing to refugee camps in neighboring nations including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The original group of Palestinian refugees and their descendants has grown to about 5 million people. Nearly all Israeli parties and factions agree that Israel cannot and should not absorb all Palestinian refugees and their descendants because it would dilute the Jewish character of Israel and overwhelm the ability of the nation to function effectively.

In his speech to the 300 Israeli students who visited his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas said that he was seeking a “creative solution” for the refugees.

“Refugees should be satisfied, and all parties should be satisfied,” Abbas told the students. “You will be satisfied, and we will be satisfied.” 

If Abbas was indeed sincere in his remarks, a major and hopeful shift has occurred that would remove a major obstacle from achieving a two-state solution with Israel.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party and whose ruling coalition includes even more militant rightist factions, brought what JTA reporter Ron Kampeas describes as a “sunny peace vision” to the Annual Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C. Kampeas reports:

“On Israeli-Palestinian peace, Netanyahu aimed to please his American hosts. He joined Secretary of State John Kerry for the first time in expressing hope that there would be a breakthrough soon and articulating an optimistic vision of the benefits that peace would bring, one that not so long ago he might have ridiculed.”

In his remarks, Netanyahu, in what appears a notable turnaround, said, “I’m prepared to make a historic peace with our Palestinian neighbors, a peace that would end a century of conflict and bloodshed. Peace would be good for us. Peace would be good for the Palestinians. But peace would also open up the possibility of establishing ties between Israel and leading countries in the Arab world.”

Netanyahu met President Barack Obama in the Oval Office after his AIPAC remarks, which occurred a day after the publication of Bloomberg News columnist Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview with Obama. In the interview, Obama stressed the need for Israel to reach an agreement with the Palestinians and said that Netanyahu needed to rise to the occasion. 

“I believe that Bibi is strong enough that if he decides that this is the right thing to do for Israel, that he could do it,” Obama said. “If he does not believe a peace deal with the Palestinians is the right thing to do for Israel, then he needs to articulate an alternative approach. And as I said before, it’s hard to come up with one that’s plausible.”

Jonathan Tobin of Commentary magazine denounced the Obama interview as threatening to the security of Israel, but he is incorrect in that assumption. 

Bibi’s strong embrace of the Kerry framework, which seeks to have an agreed-upon path forward by the end of April, along with the historically conciliatory Abbas speech, strongly suggest substantial diplomatic progress toward the goal of a two-state solution . 

Optimism is hard to come by in these troubled days of cross-border invasions and endless bloodshed, but it appears that there is some basis for hope that Abbas and Bibi have made a decision to be statesmen seeking peace for Israel and the Palestinians at long last.