Word: settlements
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...possible that the only ways to break these various logjams are unpleasant ones: withholding some U.S. aid to Israel so long as the settlement-building continues (as the first Bush Administration did) and imposing stricter sanctions against Iran. Neither path is likely. American Jews are among the Democratic Party's most loyal supporters, and Barack Hussein Obama probably won't want to encourage the fears, stoked by neoconservatives, that he is not a friend of Israel. The rigor of the Iran sanctions will be determined by the Russians and Chinese, who have not been willing to exert much pressure...
...based on the full range of final-status issues established by previous agreements - Netanyahu has publicly ruled out negotiating on two of those issues, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital. (See pictures of life in a West Bank settlement...
Abbas appeared to win Obama's backing in the U.N. speech, which made clear that the President has not accepted Netanyahu's position on the precursor issue of a settlement freeze even if he's decided to move on to the final-status negotiations. "America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," the President insisted on Wednesday. That could be read as a response to the damage Obama's credibility has suffered in the Arab world as a result of being forced by Netanyahu to retreat on the settlement issue, which had been widely viewed as a test...
Obama is still talking tough, then, but having watched him climb down from his settlement-freeze demand - and the rebuff from moderate Arab states to the President's call for them to make tangible gestures toward normalization of ties with Israel - most analysts are waiting to see what actions back his words. Reports from the talks suggest the Administration will summon the two parties to Washington next month for talks under U.S. auspices on the full gamut of final-status issues. But Netanyahu may have his own ideas and may be buoyed by his success in resisting the settlement-freeze...
...Netanyahu, not long ago, had to reverse his opposition to a two-state solution and publicly declare that his goal is similar to the one espoused today by Obama. True, Abbas was dragged to the summit only days after insisting that he will not come to any meeting unless settlement construction is frozen first. But it is also true that Netanyahu, the head of the right-wing Likud Party, is one of the first Israeli Prime Ministers to agree to some form of settlement freeze...