US-Israel ties: Why Obama wants more from Netanyahu

[Jefferson23]

.By Joshua Mitnick, Correspondent / July 6, 2010


Tel Aviv, Israel

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Obama today, the diplomatic clock is ticking.

After US envoy George Mitchell returned home after another round of indirect talks last week, Americans are impatient for substantive progress before Israel's temporary freeze on West Bank settlements expires in September. Such progress will not only move Israelis and Palestinians closer to a peace deal, it will also help the US shore up international support for implementing the recently approved United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran's nuclear program.

"There are a lot of factors that are coming together at the moment. And there is a question of how long it can carry on like this. The process is going no where,'' says one locally based Western diplomat who requested to remain anonymous. "The American patience is growing thin. There are factors banging on the door for Israel, like its diplomatic isolation. And time is running out on the two-state solution.''

SNIP* What Obama wants

"The deal that Obama is going to present to is extension of the settlement freeze in return for direct negotiations,'' says Gershon Baskin, the co-director of the Israel-Palestinian Center for Research and Information. "The Americans are extremely nervous about Sept. 26."

in full: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0706/US-Israel-ties-Why-Obama-wants-more-from-Netanyahu

[regnaD kciN]

1. "The process is going no where",,,

Same as it ever was. :-(