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Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Begin in Jerusalem
[Jerusalem Post] Herb Keinon and Khaled Abu Toameh - The long-awaited launch of Israeli-Palestinian bilateral final-status negotiations began Wednesday in Jerusalem. One Israeli diplomat, describing the atmosphere at the meeting as "tense," said the sides had widely different ideas of what the meeting was meant to accomplish. While Israel saw the meeting as "a festive resumption of the peace process" that would deal with procedural issues about how to move the process forward, the Palestinians saw it as a forum for airing grievances. "This was supposed to be the kickoff of the post-Annapolis process," one Israeli official said. "But if every time we meet there will be nothing but a discussion of current events, we will get nowhere." The two sides agreed to hold another meeting at the end of the month.