Following concerted U.S. pressure and a message of support from the Arab League, indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian leaders are set to begin this week. Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough, however, are low.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Saudi Arabia Tuesday, trying to strengthen support ahead of a U.S. effort to start indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.Saudi Arabia has played an "outstanding" role in supporting the Palestinian resolve to create "an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

There are times one could be forgiven for thinking that solving the Palestinian problem would take care of every global challenge from climate change to the flu. But would it? The short answer is no. It matters, but both less and in a different way than people tend to think.

The tiff between the U.S. and Israel is less important that the worrisome growth of tension between Palestinians and Israelis as the Israelis have claimed more and more sites sacred to the Palestinians as well. There is talk of a third Intifada or Palestinian uprising.

Israeli riot police and soldiers have, since Friday, sealed off the Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, restricting entry to women and Palestinian men over 50. The tense situation on the ground has coincided with a diplomatic crisis of sorts with the Israeli government in confrontation with visiting United States Vice-President Joe Biden.

I recently returned from the Middle East where I was part of a three week Arab & American Business Fellowship.