Posted on 08/26/2009 11:58:25 AM PDT by SolidWood
Obama plans to bring Palestinians and Israelis face to face at UN
Catherine Philp, Diplomatic Correspondent
President Obama plans to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for a face-to-face meeting at the United Nations General Assembly next month in a bid to revive long-stalled peace talks.
Plans for the meeting are being drawn up despite the failure of Mr Obamas special envoy George Mitchell to strike a compromise over Jewish settlements that would allow the resumption of the negotiations, which were abandoned in March.
Washington is backing Palestinian calls for a freeze on settlement activity as a precondition to talks, leading to a rare public falling out with Israel.
In his talks with Mr Mitchell in London today, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, failed to win the compromise he was seeking, which would exempt settlements in East Jerusalem and continue to allow natural growth of existing West Bank settlements.
Israel views the proposed meeting between Mr Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, as a way of luring the Palestinians into talks by the back door without bending to their preconditions.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
October 16, 1998
THE PIECE ACCORD
Piece broke out in Israel once again today.
The banquet followed swiftly and was done.
The Secretary savored the aroma.
The Veep chawed it like brown tobacco plug.
The PM had to swallow it despite the bulkiness.
The President devoured it like a cream-filled
Tasty Twinkie.
The Chairman sh$& it out,
And Hamas turned the switch to flush it down.
The bombs went off somewhere again.
Somebody little died and earned 900 seconds
Of moot fame
Again again again again again.
And everyone was hungry for a piece just like before.
Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, failed to win the compromise he was seeking, which would exempt settlements in East Jerusalem and continue to allow natural growth of existing West Bank settlements.
“Who failed to win the compromise? It seems to me the US was the one who lost this argument.”
Netanyahu is playing rope-a-dope with Obama and Mitchell. He’s playing them, and rightly so. Just keep playing them until they are no longer in office or lose any power they momentarily have im either the Senate and/or in the House during the midp-term elections. Bibi will outfox them at every turn.
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