John Kerry

“I don’t think Kerry is a maverick,” said Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine. He called the meeting “very significant” because it shows that “Kerry, with the encouragement of President Obama, is willing to spend some political capital and some energy on investigating the extent, very early on,” of opportunities for progress between Israel and the Palestinians.

“I’m sure it had (White House) blessing,” said Steven Simon, until recently senior director for Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council, of the meeting in Riyadh. “It makes diplomatic sense.”

Administration officials intend the trip to allay suspicions by Israelis and some of their American supporters over the strength of Obama’s support for the Jewish state. They also hope it will mark a fresh start after a first term marked by an angry snub of Netanyahu over settlements and the failed shuttle diplomacy of U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell.

While the White House cited coalition talks as the reason Kerry skipped Israel and the West Bank this week, it seems clear it didn’t want the secretary of State—who has a reputation as an adept negotiator who hungers for a lasting legacy—to upstage the President.

“Governing is about choosing,” Miller said, ranking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict behind Iran and Syria as a concern in the region. “Presidents decide what's important to them. It’s driven by opportunity and whether they can make progress. It’s a management issue.”

One that Kerry and his aides will be left to oversee while the President and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the administration’s point man on U.S.-Israeli military relations who is still recovering from his brutal confirmation battle, deal with budget cuts and sequestration at home.

Amid the exodus of Clinton staffers from Foggy Bottom, a few names of their replacements have begun to surface:

Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, will take over the central region portfolio that used to belong to Dennis Ross, the longtime Middle East negotiator. Ross, according to a close observer, is expected to remain on call as an unofficial conduit to Netanyahu but is stepping back from a major role because he lacks the confidence of the Palestinians.

Frank Lowenstein, former chief of staff for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Kerry, left the Podesta Group last month and is expected to move to State as a senior advisor to his old boss. Another committee veteran, Bill Danvers, also may come on board.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Elizabeth Jones, a career foreign service officer, could be nominated to stay on. If not, Puneet Talwar, a former Hill staffer who more recently was the NSC’s senior director for Persian Gulf Affairs, has been mentioned for the post.