Obama to push Abu Mazen for direct talks
During their meeting at the White House on Wednesday, President Obama is pushing 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President The Obama administration will press Abbas to agree to direct talks with the Israelis to accelerate progress on the peace process, with a sense of urgency on the time horizon. A partial ten month moratorium on new West Bank settlement construction is currently due to expire in September. (No doubt Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expected to meet with Obama at the White House June 28-29, will be pressed to extend it.)Abu Mazen will have dinner Wednesday evening with some 30 'American Jewish leaders.' The dinner is being organized by former Congressman Robert Wexler (D-Fla). Isn't it ironic that Abu Mazen is willing to meet directly with unelected 'American Jewish leaders' but not with the elected Prime Minister of Israel (who has far more legitimacy than Abu Mazen - whose term expired long ago)?
"On proximity talks, we look forward to engaging with President Abbas to move the process forward so that we can get to direct talks to address all the final status issues, and to ensure that neither side take provocative steps that could stand in the way of progress," the White House said yesterday.
"Basically I'm hearing there is one message for this trip, to be reiterated by Obama, [Secretary of State] Hillary [Clinton], and Mitchell: direct talks, direct talks, direct talks," the Washington Middle East hand said.
"The Palestinian response is going to be, as I understand it, 'direct talks, yes, but what guarantees do we have that they will be substantive and that Israel will negotiate seriously about major issues like borders and security and not continue to insist on talking about water and procedural issues?'" says the American Task Force for Palestine's Hussein Ibish.
"I think the Palestinians are likely to urge the Americans to seek Israeli clarification on this and then decide how and when direct final status talks will begin, and under what terms," Ibish said. "Palestinians are very concerned about pointless conversations that drag on indefinitely, and they are determined to do their best to avoid getting sucked into that."
What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:18 PM
5 Comments:
So have you seen this? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/09/barack-obama-gaza-israel-aid Looks like Obami wants to give terrorists money.
We should publicize this, bring pressure to bear on congress to nullify this amount. Until the 'palis' decide that they actually want peace, they should not get one penny of my money.
In that photo, doesn't Obama look the blushing bride and abu Mazen the old groom, grinning with disbelief at his catch!
Abu Bluff is still waiting to see if Israel will deliver the goods.
What could go wrong indeed
Is the dinner treife?
Until you solve the hamas problem, I don't see the point in having any further peace talks. Why is it that hamas isn't brought up as the main impediment to peace?
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