Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Obama Administration's latest attempt to kick-start Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations hit an unexpected setback after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during an Oct. 31 visit, praised as "unprecedented" Israel's efforts to limit construction of settlements on Palestinian-claimed land (above). The comment sparked an outcry from Arab leaders, who accused the Administration of backtracking on previous demands that Israel institute a complete freeze. Though Israelis have agreed to resume peace talks without preconditions, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to return to negotiations until all settlement construction is halted...
Netanyahu has used the Palestinian refusal to engage in unconditional talks as an opportunity to blame them for the impasse in solving the conflict, noting that Abbas spent last year in talks over a two-state deal with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert without ever mentioning a settlement freeze. Why are the Palestinians suddenly making such a fuss about a settlement freeze now? the Israelis ask, as if this signifies a hidden agenda. The Obama Administration appeared to take Netanyahu's side last weekend, pressing the Palestinians to drop the precondition for talking. But the Palestinians point out that they weren...
...Asking the Arab states to accept Israel's offer to simply slow down construction in the West Bank and its refusal to stop building and demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem - after Obama publicly and repeatedly demanded it - has battered the Administration's credibility in Arab capitals. And Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Monday his refusal to heed Washington's call to begin negotiating with Netanyahu in the absence of a settlement freeze. Abbas has promised his public and his Fatah movement, which is deeply skeptical of the prospects for dealing with Israel's hawkish government, that...
...Obama may have backpedaled on the settlement freeze in the belief that the Israelis had gone as far as they are willing to go, and that no peace can be made without them. His problem, of course, is that no peace can be made without the Palestinians either, and that Abbas' willingness to make do with whatever was on offer from Washington until now has made him an increasingly marginal figure among his own people. Even if the U.S. manages, once again, to cajole Abbas into acting against his own better judgment and restart talks, the achievement will...
...With Netanyahu's settlement-freeze defiance having demonstrated the limits of the Administration's ability to sway the Israeli government, Obama now faces the uncomfortable reality that this has also accelerated the decline of U.S. influence with the Arab states and mainstream Palestinian moderates. Having made resolving the Middle East's most intractable conflict a top foreign policy priority, the Administration now needs the symbolic resumption of talks simply to signal progress. The message from the White House to both sides over the past week has emphasized the urgency of doing that. Unfortunately, given the gulf between the demands...