Israel-Palestine first?

Pres. Obama said something significant in his speech at the UN on Sept. 24 regarding the Middle East, that has been largely over-looked: "We recognize as well that leadership will be necessary to address the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.  As bleak as the landscape appears, America will not give up on the pursuit of peace.  Understand, the situation in Iraq and Syria and Libya should cure anybody of the illusion that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the main source of problems in the region.  For far too long, that's been used as an excuse to distract people from problems at home."

Finally an important admission by the President of the United States that the Israel-Palestine conflict is NOT the root cause of the many other conflicts in the region, a ridiculous idea that has achieved traction and has prevented the West from looking coldly and clearly at the terrible clashes and violence that bedevil the whole of the Arab Muslim World.  Now the situations in Syria, Iraq and Libya, among others, cannot be blamed on Israel and the lack of progress in the so-called "peace process." 

Ed Milliband said in his speech to the Labor Party Conference, regarding the Israel-Palestine problem "[it] is one of the biggest problems our world faces," hardly, compared to Syria with 200,000 dead.  In 50 days of fighting in Gaza there were only ca. 1,000 civilian casualties.  This makes nonsense of the propagandistic statements calling this a "genocide" by various pro-Palestinian supporters, and Pres. Abbas himself at the UN, who used his speech to lambast Israel, rather than take a peaceful approach.  Rightly the US condemned his speech as "inappropriate."  Now that he has made a Unity government with Hamas, how can Israel take Abbas seriously as a peace partner.

Given the immense toll in the Syrian civil war, with now 5 distinct armies vying for power in what was, and really can no longer be called, Syria, and the battles in Iraq, including the allied air strikes, we should recognize that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a small diversion by comparison, and in fact it can only be tackled after the other conflicts are resolved, namely only when the Arab world has settled down and comes to terms with the presence of a democratic Jewish State in its midst.  The Israel-Palestine conflict must be tackled last!