Hillary Clinton, visiting Israel in 2005, is hearing from Mideast experts./DAVID SILVERMAN/GETTY IMAGES

By MARK LANDLER


WASHINGTON - As Hillary Rodham Clinton prepares to take over as secretary of state, a coterie of emissaries who have made the Arab-Israeli conflict their specialty for decades is pushing for a more assertive and balanced American approach to a region once again torn by war.

All are members of a close-knit but fractious group that has dominated the American debate over the Arab-Israeli problem. Each has written a book assessing the failures of the past and offering prescriptions for the next president. All agree that with Gaza in flames, the United States needs to make a renewed push for peace.

But they differ sharply on how best to do that. At the heart of the debate is whether Washington should continue to embrace Israel as uncritically as it did during the Bush administration, and to what extent it should become engaged in the minutiae of peace negotiations as it did under Bill Clinton.

The experts argue, the next administration should act as a broker between Israel and the Palestinians, but it should avoid squandering American influence by becoming too heavily vested in a single solution.

“We’ve allowed our special relationship with Israel to become exclusive,” said Aaron David Miller, who advised several administrations on the Middle East.“We acquiesced in too many bad Israeli ideas; we roadtested every idea with Israel first.”

Those dispensing the advice - Mr.Miller, Dennis B.Ross, Martin S.Indyk and Daniel C.Kurtzer - are the same Middle East experts who advised Bill Clinton in his long pursuit of a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

With some of them in line to work for Mrs.Clinton, their rivalries, frustrations and ambitions are playing out in full view. Mrs.Clinton brings her own views and experience, stemming from her years as first lady, when she immersed herself in Mr.Clinton’s peacemaking efforts and was criticized for appearing to tilt toward Palestinian interests. Later, as a New York senator, she honed a reputation as a champion of Israel.

People who know Mrs.Clinton say she is eager to recruit a fresh face to handle the Arab-Israeli issue, perhaps reaching beyond the circle of Middle East stalwarts. Still, in the debates playing out on cable talk shows and in opinion columns, the discussion keeps coming back to members of this group, all of whom are Jewish and have collectively worked for five presidents and 10 secretaries of state.

They bring three decades of experience in one of the most politically perilous parts of the world. But they have been sidelined for much of the Bush presidency, which has relegated the Middle East peace process to secondary status.

Mr.Ross, who has been an important player on Middle East issues since the Reagan administration, is the most prominent member of the group. The others have played a more subordinate role, though Mr.Indyk and Mr.Kurtzer have both been ambassadors to Israel, and Mr.Miller has advised six secretaries of state.

Mr.Miller’s heroes are Henry A.Kissinger and James A.Baker III, secretaries of state who he says dealt with Israel in a tough but fair manner. He argues that Mr.Clinton’s embrace of Israeli leaders, while well-intentioned, undermined the ability of the United States to seal a deal with the Palestinians. Nonsense, says Mr.Indyk, who argues that Washington’s close relationship with Israel assures the Palestinians and other Arabs that the United States has leverage with Israel.

“The school of beating up on Israel is fundamentally wrong because it just causes Israel to dig in its heels,”said Mr.Indyk, whose book,“Innocent Abroad,”praises Mr.Clinton for his unflagging commitment to a deal but is unsparing about the flaws in his approach. Mr.Clinton, he wrote, became too immersed in details, losing sight of the big picture.

For all their differences, the advisers agree on one thing: the disengagement from Israeli-Palestinian issues that President Bush practiced in his first term was a failure. The Obama administration, they said, will have little choice but to dive into the issue. But Mrs.Clinton faces a rough ride, Mr.Indyk said, because“the Gaza crisis has so weakened the hands of those who would make peace.”