[Not a parody]Obama to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Here is proof that the Obama team apparently comes to the plate without any memory of what has transpired in this neighborhood.

We have been through loads of timetables.

And all of them ended up being a farce.

Now if Mr. Obama thinks that he can set up a system according to which a
third party will decide/impose a "solution" should resolution not be reached
by some deadline then we have an issue that even the Jewish leaders who met
with him this week (except the folks at J Street and American Friends of
Peace Now) can firmly oppose along with Israel.]

Obama to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks

By Barak Ravid
Haaretz
16/07/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100581.html

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce a diplomatic plan soon
for renewal of the Middle East peace process.

A central feature of the plan, which will be presented to Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
will be a binding timetable for negotiations on the core issues involved in
a final resolution of the conflict.

It may also be precluded by an easing of pressure for a building freeze in
the settlements on the part of the Unites States.

A senior Western diplomat closely involved in current contacts involving the
U.S., Israel, the PA and moderate Arab states noted that the American
administration is currently developing the diplomatic plan but is only
interested in pursuing it after the settlement issue and the matter of
pro-Israel gestures from the Arab states are resolved.

The American plan will essentially restart negotiations between Israel and
the Palestinians which have been deadlocked for over six months. The plan
will not deal with all of the specific details of the negotiations and will
not provide parameters for the resolution of core issues. Rather it will
provide a framework for negotiations, how they will be conducted, follow-up
mechanisms and especially the timetable for negotiations.

The senior diplomat said Obama is interested in bringing talks to a
conclusion "on time" as a way of obligating the parties to make progress.

The diplomat also noted that the U.S. is now interested in reaching a
compromise with Israel on the settlement issue as a prelude to presentation
of the American plan, as the Americans have understood that Israel cannot
agree to an absolute freeze in construction in the settlements.

The change in the American view on the issue was the result of the fact that
about 2,500 homes in the settlements are in various advanced stages of
construction which cannot be halted.

U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell is therefore attempting to find a formula
by which Israel will go as far as it can to stop settlement building.

The shift in the American position is also the product of the refusal on the part of the moderate Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, to make significant normalization gestures toward Israel. In all probability, when the Americans understood that in any event they would not obtain substantial gestures from the Arabs, they decided to reach a compromise with Israel.

The compromise will also include an agreement on a joint database between Israel and the U.S. which will permit close tracking of settlement construction and verification that it is being kept to a minimum.

The plan, according to the senior diplomat, would also include other Israeli confidence-building measures toward the Palestinians. The diplomatic source cautioned that the Arab world's total lack of trust in Netanyahu remained a major problem.

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