AP - Israel's prime minister and the Palestinian president have set off on a yearlong peace journey, taking to a well-trod road that has led only to failure for nearly two decades. Even so, the negotiating chess board is arranged differently this time around.First, the belligerent Shiite Muslim theocracy in Iran has become not only an open threat to Israel but a subtle and growing worry for some of the Jewish state's Sunni Arab neighbors. There's a common enemy among interested parties. Perhaps as important, there is a largely new cast of characters at these talks. Israel's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been a hard-liner, arguing that Israel cannot maintain its security under any agreement the Palestinians would accept. But as a hard-liner — much as President Richard Nixon was a bone-deep anti-communist when he made the U.S. opening to China four decades ago — Netanyahu may have the credibility among the Israeli right to make a deal. For his part, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is in a politically life-threatening struggle to sustain his power against the radical Hamas faction. Hamas won elections and kicked Abbas' moderate Fatah organization out of the Gaza Strip, engendering a vast schism among Palestinians. Winning guaranteed statehood for the Palestinians — if the deal is right — could hand Abbas a major political victory. Beyond that, President Barack Obama — he made the latest talks a virtual command performance — has invested major political capital. He barely knew his way around the White House in early 2009 when he said Middle East peace was a top priority. In his very first days in office, Obama appointed George Mitchell to serve as his man in the Middle East. Mitchell carries enormous credibility as a negotiator, having played a key role in bringing Protestants and Catholics into a power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland.

Dale Gavalak is available in Amman, Sami Sockol and Orly Halpern are available in Jerusalem.