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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030801989.html
Experts Skeptical of Indirect Peace Talks
(Washington Post) Janine Zacharia - U.S. special envoy George Mitchell announced Monday that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to indirect talks, though he acknowledged that the structure and scope of the talks had not yet been agreed upon. "It's hardly a cause for celebration that after 17 years of direct official talks we are regressing to proximity talks," said Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. "Israelis and Palestinians aren't ready for direct talks; their positions are too far apart," said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. mediator and ambassador to Israel and Egypt, said it's "not understandable why we would now have them sit in separate rooms and move between them."