President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama may make former Secretary of State Colin Powell his special envoy for peace to Israel and Palestine.

Sources told online Israeli news site Ynet that this is a “a serious option.”

Powell is a former national security adviser under Reagen, was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush, Sr. during the first Gulf War, and dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under the current president during the second Palestinian Intifida.

Further, Powell is a prominent Republican and such an appointment would fit the image of a bipartisan presidency that Obama is trying to create.

Although the option is being considered by Obama, it is unclear if a 71-year old Powell would accept such a stressful mission to the Middle East or if Hillary Clinton herself would accept a special envoy reporting directly to Obama that might take the limelight away from her efforts in the conflict.

Two other names mentioned according to Ynet are those of Dennis Ross and Daniel Kurtzer. Ross was Clinton’s envoy to the conflict and Kurtzer was President Bush’s ambassador to Israel. Both supported Obama for the presidency. Powell is known for his evenhandedness on the Israeli-Palestinians conflict, something that earned him the distrust of Arial Sharon and the scorn of the neo-conservative Zionist establishment.

Ross, on the other hand, has a reputation of siding with Israel. Even Palestinians who were most submissive to the U.S. and Israel (those who are always seeking a White House lawn photo) complained that Ross was an uneven negotiator. Kurtzer himself in his new book Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East‎ states that Ross’ policy was accepting the Israeli position without modification and then trying to sell it to the Arabs, hardly the role of a fair negotiator who should consider both sides and then work to find a middle. Though less dogmatically pro-Israel than Ross, Kurtzer himself is not a balanced man between the two sides.