(Washington Post) Editorial - The administration's Middle East diplomacy has degenerated from a bid to conclude a final Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement this month to an attempt to win agreement on a preliminary "framework" to a desperate race to prevent the talks from collapsing. According to widespread reports Tuesday, there was discussion of the possible release of Jonathan Pollard, to be bartered for Israel's freeing of Palestinian prisoners. The obvious question is why the U.S. is offering its own concessions rather than brokering compromise between the two parties that are supposed to be negotiating. The simple answer is that Secretary of State John Kerry has failed to persuade either side to budge from widely divergent positions on the terms of Palestinian statehood. Just as in two previous rounds of U.S.-sponsored peace talks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has publicly rejected Kerry's terms and refused to commit to an extension of the talks.
2014-04-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive