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Obama launches long-odds Middle East peace bid
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday launched a long-odds bid to forge Israel-Palestinian peace within a year, despite widespread skepticism and violent attempts to strangle his efforts.
On the eve of the first direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians for 20 months, Obama gathered regional power brokers for one-to-one sessions and a joint dinner at the White House, putting his personal credibility on the line.
The talks will take place with few of the parties, or outside observers, predicting success, and widespread regional distrust and suspicion are reflected in the lack of obvious popular momentum for a new era of peacemaking.
Low expectations for the peace drive were borne out as key players entered the talks with entrenched positions and after the Islamist Hamas movement delivered a bloody riposte to the talks by killing four Israelis.
And the issues on the table -- the status of Jerusalem, security, the borders of a Palestinian state and the right of return for Palestinian refugees have confounded all previous mediation attempts.
In an opening gambit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he would not extend a settlement building moratorium that expires at end of the month, his office said.
The Palestinians have warned they will walk out of direct talks if the restriction is not extended, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned in The New York Times the freeze must stay if the peace drive is to succeed.
But the White House insists that a "window of opportunity" has opened up to forge a two-state solution in the Middle East, at a time when Iran's growing influence is threatening to reset the regional political map.
Obama first huddled in the Oval Office with Netanyahu, who responded to the Hamas strike on the West Bank by vowing to avenge the spilling of Israeli blood.
In a flurry of high-stakes diplomacy, coming at a time when his domestic popularity is ebbing due to the slowing recovery, he was then due to hold separate talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Mubarak.
All five leaders were then due to appear together at a potentially awkward White House appearance to make individual statements, before retiring for a dinner also featuring Quartet diplomatic representative Tony Blair.
The White House said the day of intense presidential engagement was meant to build trust ahead of direct US-engineered Israel-Palestinian talks due to be compered by Clinton on Thursday.
"(This is) setting the stage for the direct negotiations that will begin at the State Department," said White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes.
After the attack killed four Israelis near a Jewish settlement in the Palestinian West Bank on Tuesday, Netanyahu pressed Israel's security demands but pledged to keep the talks on track after a 20-month hiatus.
"I will set clearly the security needs that are required precisely to address these kind of terror," Netanyahu said, while vowing: "We will not let the blood of Israeli civilians go unpunished."
Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said the peace talks would go ahead despite the attack.
"There is no change. We are committed to peace. We are committed to moving forward and committed to a historic peace arrangement with the Palestinians."
Abbas said the attack in Kiryat Arba, a West Bank settlement, was intended to "disrupt the political process." Hamas, which rules Gaza, is opposed to the peace talks and is a rival of Abbas's US-backed Palestinian Authority.
The Quartet of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia launched a roadmap for peace in 2003 that calls for a Palestinian state living alongside a secure Israel.
Top level talks in search of the elusive peace deal broke off in 2008 when Israel invaded the Palestinian Gaza Strip to halt militant rocket fire on its south.
Huge issues -- many unresolved since the creation of Israel in 1948 -- remain on the table including the status of Jerusalem, claimed by both sides as their capital, and the fate of Palestinian refugees chased from their lands.
Continued Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories are seen as a major hurdle to the peace process, with the 10-month Israeli freeze due to expire on September 26.
Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell, briefing journalists ahead of the talks, said the president's one-year timeframe to seal a deal was "realistic" despite the scale of the task.
"We believe these negotiations can be completed within one year," Mitchell said. "We will engage with perseverance and patience to try to bring them to a successful conclusion."
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September 3, 2010