They apparently agreed on nothing
There were several requests on Wednesday from people I follow on Twitter to come forward with information about Tuesday night's Obama - Netanyahu meetings. If they got anything, I didn't see it. Here's what Ben Smith at Politico has figured out. It's not much. Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with Special Envoy George Mitchell today after more than two hours with President Barack Obama last night apparently didn't produce enough agreement even to release a joint statement.It's amazing how far back this administration has taken us. Now we have to build confidence so that George Mitchell can shuttle between Netanayhu and Abu Mazen.
"There are areas of agreement and areas of disagreement but the conversation is ongoing," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, when asked about last night's conspicuous silence.
"The President and Prime Minister met and had a full discussion about issues related to the US- Israel relationship, including regional security and peace efforts," he added in an emailed statement. "The President asked the Prime Minister to take steps to build confidence for proximity talks so that progress can be made toward peace."
By the way, as much as I don't care for Mitchell, I don't believe he's to blame for this. He's not the one who decided to demand a total Israeli 'settlement freeze' as a pre-condition for re-starting talks. It's the boob in the White House's fault. Henry Kissinger couldn't get them talking under these circumstances.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:52 AM
1 Comments:
Obama messed it up. He could have taken Netanyahu's apology two weeks ago and moved on to try to restart the talks. Now, he looks like he has nothing to show for it - and since the Palestinians aren't playing ball, there's little Israel can do to help Mitchell move things forward at this point.
Obama is petulant to the point of being unable to accept responsibility for his mistakes. Blaming Israel is not going to change the fact that he knew Jerusalem was never going to be on the agenda.
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