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In Paris, the World Will Try One More Time to Solve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
(Washington Post) William Booth - With all the challenges facing the world, the international community has accepted the invitation of French President Francois Hollande to come to Paris on Sunday to urge Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hammer out a two-state solution to their decades-long conflict. Secretary of State John Kerry will spend his last hours in office in Paris negotiating a consensus document on how Israelis and Palestinians can live as two peoples, side by side, in peace and security - this, even after Kerry spent nine months of his tenure shuttling between Jerusalem, Ramallah and Arab capitals in a failed attempt to strike a final peace accord. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Wednesday the Paris conference "is like a wedding with neither bride nor groom." She said the Palestinians don't really want peace. They "venerate death and destruction....The conference won't bring peace. On the contrary, it will distance peace. Israel achieved peace with Egypt and Jordan through direct talks." French President Hollande, who is out of office in May, told his diplomatic corps that the objective of the conference was to reaffirm the support of the international community for a two-state solution. "I am realistic about what this conference can achieve," he said. "Peace will only be done by the Israelis and Palestinians and by nobody else. Only bilateral negotiations can succeed."