Settlement building in the West Bank is once again underway after the Israeli government allowed the 10 month moratorium on settlement expansion to expire.
 
Not that building had ceased entirely during those 10 months but for that short time all parties, for the sake of expediency, had agreed to turn a blind eye to the realities.

But now with the Israeli government giving the go-ahead for further building the fragile basis for recent peace talks has again been undermined, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is once again trapped in a seemingly impossible situation, because a halt in settlement construction has long been his key condition.

He is touring Europe lobbying for support from European leaders and said he will be meeting with Arab League member states in Cairo next week.

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has urged the Palestinians to continue peace talks despite the freeze not being extended.

With the peace process under serious threat, what will Abbas do next? And can diplomacy find a way out of this dilemma? What sort of support will he receive from the Arab League and the international community?

Joining the show are Sabri Saidam, the deputy speaker of Fatah's council, Yousef Munayyer, the  
executive director of the Palestinian cultural and policy institute in DC, and Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and the author of Ending The Iraq War.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Tuesday, September 28, 2010.