Story highlights Aaron Miller: Jimmy Carter's call for US to recognize the State of Palestine is a mistake

Key to solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict does not rest in President Obama's hands, nor in those of his successor, he says

Aaron David Miller is a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and author of "The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have (and Doesn't Want) Another Great President." Miller was a Middle East negotiator in Democratic and Republican administrations. Follow him @aarondmiller2. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) Writing in the New York Times, former President Jimmy Carter this week called on President Barack Obama to join with 137 countries and recognize the State of Palestine. Arguing that the two-state solution is dying and that something must be done to keep hope alive, Carter wrote: "I fear for the spirit of Camp David. We must not squander this chance."

Yet having spent the better part of my adult professional life working to promote, facilitate and consummate negotiations between Arabs and Israelis, my advice is precisely the opposite of Mr. Carter's.

Aaron David Miller

I completely understand the urgent desire on the part of American peacemakers to do something. And in the case of Mr. Carter, that passion is especially strong. Few Israelis and Egyptians I know would take issue with the fact that had it not been for the role played by the US, led by President Jimmy Carter -- building on Anwar Sadat's historic visit and Menachem Begin's strong response -- there would have been no Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in 1979.

President Obama had, for his part, an eight-year shot at resolving this issue. Yet while the two-state solution is indeed in peril, there's little he can do in the next couple of months that will change that.

As hard as it may be to accept right now, a unilateral move might make matters worse. And the reality is that any initiative the United States proposes -- especially recognition of Palestinian statehood -- would anyway have a very real chance of being overturned or undermined by the next administration, which would leave the Obama legacy in tatters, while diminishing US credibility in the process.

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