Posted on 01/22/2010 5:09:47 PM PST by Steelfish
Mitchell Ends Mideast Trip With Little Progress Toward Peace Talks
Edmund Sanders January 22, 2010
Reporting from Jerusalem - As U.S. envoy George J. Mitchell wrapped up his Mideast trip today with little to show for his efforts to kick-start peace talks, the Obama administration is signaling a growing pessimism that Israelis and Palestinians will return to negotiations any time soon.
During his first visit since November, Mitchell met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But officials on both sides said little progress was achieved toward restarting talks that collapsed a year ago.
Even as Mitchell was meeting principals in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, President Obama expressed doubts about whether Israeli and Palestinian leaders were prepared to make the kind of compromises needed to engage in a "meaningful conversation," he told Time magazine. "And I think we overestimated our ability to persuade them to do so."
Obama acknowledged this his administration's efforts "this year didn't produce the kind of breakthrough that we wanted, and if we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high."
Having grown frustrated with its efforts to resolve the Mideast conflict, the U.S. may be preparing to step back from the diplomatic process.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
What was it again that Zero said about Israel when he was campaigning? He said something that gave me the impression that he was intent on fixing things pretty damn quick.
Oh well. Chalk up another failure for Zero.
Good - failure is good in this case.
Having grown frustrated with its efforts to resolve the Mideast conflict, the U.S. may be preparing to step back from the diplomatic process.Thanks Steelfish.
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