Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to resume after three years
By Arshad Mohammed and Ori Lewis - WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM | Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:44pm EDT
(Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians plan to resume peace negotiations this week for the first time in nearly three years after an intense effort by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to bring them back to the table.
The talks are scheduled to resume in Washington on Monday evening and Tuesday and will be conducted by senior aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said.
"Both leaders have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult decisions that have been instrumental in getting to this point. We are grateful for their leadership," Kerry said in a statement.
Middle East analysts voiced skepticism that the talks might lead to a peace treaty to end the more than six-decade conflict that has defied two decades of U.S. efforts to broker a solution.
Still, the resumption of negotiations is a rare moment of good news in the Middle East for the Obama administration, which has struggled to formulate a policy to try to end the civil war in Syria or to facilitate a democratic transition in Egypt.
Even getting the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree to resume talks required great effort by Kerry, who made six peace-making trips to the region in the last four months - an unusual amount of time - to coax the two sides back.
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It is unclear how the United States hopes to bridge the core issues in the dispute, including borders, the future of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
While commending Kerry for his determination, Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, said President Barack Obama would have to get involved if the talks were ultimately to succeed and the United States would have to offer its own ideas for a solution.
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Well, I stand corrected.
Recently, I stated that I believed there was zero chance - that of a snowball in hell - that Peace Talks would resume anytime soon; certainly not on Kerry's watch.
I was wrong.
Not that I think there is any chance of any sort of meaningful Peace or Resolution.
We've all seen that before... been there... done that... got the T-shirt.
But every round of talks represents some glimmer of prospect for success, I suppose.
By Arshad Mohammed and Ori Lewis - WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM | Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:44pm EDT
(Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians plan to resume peace negotiations this week for the first time in nearly three years after an intense effort by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to bring them back to the table.
The talks are scheduled to resume in Washington on Monday evening and Tuesday and will be conducted by senior aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said.
"Both leaders have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult decisions that have been instrumental in getting to this point. We are grateful for their leadership," Kerry said in a statement.
Middle East analysts voiced skepticism that the talks might lead to a peace treaty to end the more than six-decade conflict that has defied two decades of U.S. efforts to broker a solution.
Still, the resumption of negotiations is a rare moment of good news in the Middle East for the Obama administration, which has struggled to formulate a policy to try to end the civil war in Syria or to facilitate a democratic transition in Egypt.
Even getting the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree to resume talks required great effort by Kerry, who made six peace-making trips to the region in the last four months - an unusual amount of time - to coax the two sides back.
...
It is unclear how the United States hopes to bridge the core issues in the dispute, including borders, the future of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
While commending Kerry for his determination, Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, said President Barack Obama would have to get involved if the talks were ultimately to succeed and the United States would have to offer its own ideas for a solution.
...
==============================
Well, I stand corrected.
Recently, I stated that I believed there was zero chance - that of a snowball in hell - that Peace Talks would resume anytime soon; certainly not on Kerry's watch.
I was wrong.
Not that I think there is any chance of any sort of meaningful Peace or Resolution.
We've all seen that before... been there... done that... got the T-shirt.
But every round of talks represents some glimmer of prospect for success, I suppose.
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