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U.S. to Push Peace in Middle East Media Campaign

[New York Times] Mark Landler - The fact that U.S. envoy George Mitchell has shuttled back and forth to the Middle East for the last 190 days without any breakthroughs, he said, does not mean that President Obama's push for peace there is stalled. But while the negotiating has continued, reports in Israel, in particular, have focused on the claim that the Obama administration's pressure is alienating Israelis even while it is failing to sway Arabs. "One of the public misimpressions is that it's all been about settlements," Mitchell said in an interview Friday. "It is completely inaccurate to portray this as, 'We're only asking the Israelis to do things.' We are asking everybody to do things." In coming weeks, the White House will begin a public-relations campaign in Israel and Arab countries to better explain Obama's plans for a comprehensive peace agreement. The campaign amounts to a reframing of a policy that people inside and outside the administration say has become overly defined by American pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction on the West Bank. Aaron David Miller, who was a peace negotiator in several administrations, said that assuming that Mitchell can break the deadlock over the settlements issue in the next few weeks, the Obama administration will most likely aim for a peace conference in the fall. However, Obama has not yet visited Israel as president and, in the view of some, has not laid out his broad strategy to the Israeli people in a persuasive manner.
2009-08-03 06:00:00
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