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President Obama Blow As US Fails To Secure Israel Peace Talks Progress [Foreign Policy Mess!]
London Times ^ | September 18, 2009

Posted on 09/18/2009 3:21:40 PM PDT by Steelfish

September 18, 2009

President Obama Blow As US Fails To Secure Israel Peace Talks Progress

Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem and Giles Whittell in Washington

A frantic effort by the US Middle East envoy to wrest an agreement that would restart peace talks appeared to have ended in failure yesterday, inflicting President Obama’s first important foreign policy setback.

George Mitchell shuttled between Jerusalem and the West Bank attempting to wrest an agreement on settlement building before the UN General Assembly meeting next week.

US officials had hoped that Israeli and Palestinian leaders would meet on the sidelines of the assembly, kick-starting peace negotiations that have been stalled for nearly nine months. But a spokesperson for the State Department told reporters, “There has been no agreement to have the trilateral meeting . Of course we were hoping for a breakthrough.”

It appeared that Israeli and Palestinian leaders remained at odds over several key issues, most notably Israel’s West Bank settlements. Mr Mitchell was said to be pushing Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, for a year-long freeze but an Israeli official said that this “was not an option”.

It would consider a freeze of up to nine months, the official said, excluding approximately 3,000 housing units that had already been approved. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, told Mr Mitchell yesterday that he would not resume talks without a complete freeze, according to the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. “We once again reiterated that there is no middle ground solutions for settlements. A settlement freeze is a settlement freeze.”

The White House put an optimistic gloss on Mr Mitchell’s efforts. Asked about a nine-month freeze, Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s spokesman, said that it could be “very helpful to the overall process”.

Despite the evidence of faltering diplomacy....

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: frenkel; mhmmdnsm09182009
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1 posted on 09/18/2009 3:21:40 PM PDT by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish
It didn't help when the Secretary of State filled the sky with the words "Surrender Bibi!"
2 posted on 09/18/2009 3:23:37 PM PDT by KarlInOhio ("I can run wild for six months ...after that, I have no expectation of success" - Admiral Obama-moto)
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To: KarlInOhio
0 was too busy surrendering to Putin to help the Palis this week.
3 posted on 09/18/2009 3:27:13 PM PDT by mojito
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To: Steelfish

Has Obama done anything good?


4 posted on 09/18/2009 3:34:34 PM PDT by Islaminaction
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To: Steelfish

Nothing that Obama has done on the foreign policy front has ‘worked’..unless of course you are American’s enemies, in which case you would have to be delighted with Obama’s efforts to destroy America. The man needs to be impeached!


5 posted on 09/18/2009 3:36:41 PM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
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To: Steelfish

Isn’t that a typo? Shouldn’t it be: “President Obama Blows...”?


6 posted on 09/18/2009 3:39:20 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan (In Edward KennedyÂ’s America, federal funding of brothels is a right, not a privilege.)
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To: Islaminaction

He called Kanye West a jackass.


7 posted on 09/18/2009 3:40:13 PM PDT by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
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To: SE Mom

Hahaha....you’re right.


8 posted on 09/18/2009 3:41:29 PM PDT by Islaminaction
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To: Steelfish

Obama blow? Giving, receiving, or snorting?


9 posted on 09/18/2009 3:42:56 PM PDT by MortMan (Stubbing one's toes is a valid (if painful) way of locating furniture in the dark.)
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To: Steelfish

go, Bibi. stand tall.


10 posted on 09/18/2009 3:43:12 PM PDT by avital2
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To: Steelfish

How can this be when the “smartest woman in the world” is Sec of State?? Maybe the folks in Israel heard about her FJB comment when she was first lady.


11 posted on 09/18/2009 3:45:02 PM PDT by taillightchaser (When a democrat says "The American people" you know the next words out of his mouth will be lies.)
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To: Islaminaction

Ya, “first set back”??? What’s he done right???? Bibi is not a pushover like this wuss in chief.


12 posted on 09/18/2009 3:45:51 PM PDT by jackv (The darkness hates the light!)
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To: Steelfish
US officials had hoped that Israeli and Palestinian leaders would meet on the sidelines of the assembly, kick-starting peace negotiations that have been stalled for nearly nine months. But a spokesperson for the State Department told reporters, “There has been no agreement to have the trilateral meeting . Of course we were hoping for a breakthrough.”

Unf*cking- believable. These gibbering Ivy league idiots actually think "Hope" is a strategy.

I guess I actually don't believe it. Nobody could be this stupid and live. There must be another explanation.

13 posted on 09/18/2009 3:46:20 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard (truth--the liberal's kryptonite.)
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To: jackv

SE Mom posted what he did right,

SE Mom to Islaminaction
He called Kanye West a jackass.


14 posted on 09/18/2009 3:47:15 PM PDT by Islaminaction
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To: Steelfish

Wasn’t it just a couple weeks ago that there was a lot of hubub about restarting the Mideast Peace talks and that Obama was going to sit down and negotiate a deal? As I recall, things were reportedly all set.


15 posted on 09/18/2009 3:47:33 PM PDT by Loyal Buckeye
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To: Islaminaction

True,true. I stand corrected. :o)


16 posted on 09/18/2009 3:48:14 PM PDT by jackv (The darkness hates the light!)
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To: Steelfish

I just knew Larry Sanders was going to be in this article somewhere...


17 posted on 09/18/2009 3:51:17 PM PDT by The_Sword_of_Groo (Dum spiramus tuebimur - "While We Have Breath, We Will Defend")
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To: Arthur McGowan
Isn’t that a typo? Shouldn’t it be: “President Obama Blows...”?

You're right.....I think they left out Larry Sinclair's name too.
18 posted on 09/18/2009 3:52:24 PM PDT by Electric Graffiti (Yonder stands your orphan with his gun)
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To: jackv

:)


19 posted on 09/18/2009 3:54:58 PM PDT by Islaminaction
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To: Steelfish
This is just part of the fallout from Obama capitulating to Russia on the stationing of ABM installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. The US is losing its credibility as a reliable partner. How can Israel trust our word when Obama can turn around and pull the rug out from under any previous agreement?

In any event, this was doomed from the start.

20 posted on 09/18/2009 3:57:49 PM PDT by kabar
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