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Source: http://www.cfr.org/middle-east/mideast-speech-strong-rhetoric-weak-plan/p25041
Peace Negotiations Now Are Simply Unrealistic
(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - On the whole, the president's comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will lead nowhere. It is striking that he suggested no action: no meeting, no envoy, no Quartet session, no invitations to Washington. About the new Fatah-Hamas unity agreement he said this: "How can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist? In the weeks and months to come, Palestinian leaders will have to provide a credible answer to that question." Indeed they must, and they won't, so this is perhaps an acknowledgment by the president that negotiations are simply unrealistic right now. It is possible that the White House was mostly seeking to park the issue for the coming year through some "balanced" rhetoric.