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Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46477.html
Israelis and Palestinians Must Own Their Negotiations
(Politico) Aaron David Miller - The Obama administration needs to chill - and stop being so hard on itself when it comes to Arab-Israeli peace-making. No sooner has one approach to the peace process failed than the administration gets busy launching another. Message to President Barack Obama: Yes, Arab-Israeli peace is important; and no, you don't want to abandon the effort. But unless the Israelis and Palestinians own their negotiations and are ready for big tough decisions - right now they're not - there is little you can do to manufacture a breakthrough. As long as the administration doesn't overreach - as it did on the settlement issue - the current approach is right for now: Help Palestinians build a state from the bottom up and engage Israelis and Palestinians on all the core issues from the top down. The president should avoid bridging proposals - let alone a U.S. plan - unless he is certain that the parties are close to an agreement. The writer, a former Middle East negotiator, is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.