Israeli and Palestinian officials are scheduled to meet in Washington on Monday to talk about breaking a five-year deadlock over a peace process for the Middle East.

Yesterday, Israeli cabinet ministers approved the release of more than 100 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry to get the process started again.

Newsweek's Middle East editor Christopher Dickey writes in a piece called "In Search of the Obama Doctrine" that "during desperately dangerous times, solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the last best chance for the U.S. to influence events in the region."

Given the turmoil in the region, Dickey says the conflict has been relegated to a smaller role in the Middle East.

"If you’re going to build peace, you have to start somewhere in the Middle East, and I think that actually, ironically, as difficult as it is, Israel and Palestine are the places to start," Dickey said. "It isn’t going to solve the region’s problems, but it will solve a huge problem."