The Fatah conference is underway in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. There has been no lack of controversy regarding the first conference held in over twenty years and the biggest headline to emerge is that Fatah is not about to relinquish their right to armed resistance against Israel’s forty two year occupation of the West Bank. Haaretz staff writer, Avi Issacharoff, had an interesting piece yesterday about the growing concern in Israel that another intifada is brewing.

“We hate to admit it, but the Palestinian Authority, as opposed to Israel, is keeping to the requirements of the road map and is operating against the “terror infrastructure.” In the past, one of the easiest tasks for a journalist in the territories was interviewing armed men. Today they cannot be found in the West Bank cities. The government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad disbanded Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and the services subordinate to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are fighting an all-out war against the armed men of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”

“It’s true that the West Bank has never been so quiet. But we must make no mistake; the situation remains fragile. In the opinion of many senior members of Fatah, in light of the dead end that characterizes the diplomatic contacts, the next explosion between Israel and the Palestinians is only a matter of time.”

With the East Jerusalem house evictions this week, the time for Obama to step up and engage with this conflict is now. The Jerusalem Post has even run an op-ed about the grave danger that the East Jerusalem evictions pose for all parties involved.

“The Americans raked us over the coals for that one a couple of weeks ago. Now there are the two Palestinian families – 53 people in all – being turned out of their homes by Israeli police, who are now guarding the proud Jews settling into their new second home.

If Obama and Co. were getting ready to blink, this should snap their eyes wide open to what’s at stake in the battle over the settlements. They’d better keep their eyes wide open until the battle’s over – until all settlement is frozen and the land, ultimately, is redivided – or the injustice and indecency may never end.”

Also in the news this week, Nefesh B’Nefesh has brought another flight full of new immigrants from North America with an untold number moving to the very West Bank settlements that help form the core obstacle to any peace process. If Obama does not act soon, he might be missing an opportunity to create a groundswell for a new peace process. Failure to act could lead to exactly the thing that would take the settlement issue off the table, another intifada.