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Source: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2011/08/16/quartet-statements%E2%80%94and-quartet-silences/
Disband the Middle East Quartet
(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - The Middle East Quartet was unable to issue a statement about the Palestinian effort to get the UN to declare Palestine a state and admit it to membership. Nor has the Quartet issued a statement about the attacks the Assad regime has been carrying out this week against Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, which have led thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes. But on August 16 it addressed what it apparently saw as a graver issue and a greater threat to peace, Israel's announcement of plans to construct additional housing units in Jerusalem and Ariel. Nowadays the Quartet seems able to reach agreement on only one thing: criticism of Israel. This is the lowest common denominator among the U.S., EU, UN, and Russia. If this is the only function of the Quartet, the better path would be to disband it now - for the statements it is making and the statements it seems unable to make combine to bring discredit on all participants.