Middle East Peace

It took a year of trying for President Obama to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to enter into "proximity talks" to resolve issues standing in the way of a final peace plan. But as we learned from the stunning announcement this week -- during Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region -- that Israel had approved 112 new settlement units in the West Bank and 1,600 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, there is a lot that can go wrong. Assuming the Israeli announcement doesn't derail the process before it gets underway, the Obama administration will need to move decisively.

Israel gave preliminary approval Tuesday to the construction of about 1,100 new housing units in East Jerusalem, brushing aside pleas from U.S. and European diplomats to delay the controversial project as they attempt to restart peace talks. The Interior Ministry's green light will clear the way for a significant expansion of the Jewish development of Gilo, on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Middle East War. Critics said the move is a setback for the Mideast "quartet" —the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia — which last week issued a call for Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct talks within the next month.

Did he blunder and give comfort to Israel's enemies or was he candidly expressing what he and many Israelis in their hearts believe? Either way, Labor Party leader Ehud Barak's remark last week that if he had been born a Palestinian, he might have joined one of the groups fighting Israel has erupted into a major political flap for the former army chief who wants Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's job.

President Obama reassured a powerful pro-Israel group that America's support for the Jewish state's security is "ironclad" but insisted on a sense of urgency about reviving peace talks that he said would require both Israelis and Palestinians to make "hard choices. " "The current situation in the Middle East does not allow for procrastination," Obama said, noting that he had expressed that impatience to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their private meeting Friday. Obama's comment was one of several that seemed designed to push Israel's leaders outside their comfort zone, even at the risk of creating tension in the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

Middle Eastern leaders have listened to President Obama say that he intends to achieve the peace deal that has eluded so many of his predecessors. Now they're about to find out just how hard he'll push to get it. Obama today holds his first White House meeting with Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a conservative who has pointedly stopped short of accepting the idea of a Palestinian state, which is the goal of the president and most other world leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected a request from President Bush on Friday to restart cease-fire negotiations with the Palestinians, an Israeli Cabinet minister said. Sharon told the president that he had canceled a meeting planned for Sunday between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat because it would damage Israeli interests, said Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin.

Highlights of the "road map" for Mideast peace, developed by the "quartet" of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia: Goals * A "final and comprehensive settlement" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005. * The settlement will include "an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel."

Here is the rundown on guests and topics for the weekend's public-affairs programs: Today "Today": Women in the workplace; obsessive-compulsive behavior; bicycles; Bill Paxton, 5 a.m. (4). "Evans & Novak": Rep. Richard Armey (R-Texas), 2:30 p.m., repeats Sunday, 7 a.m. CNN. "Saturday Journal": 7 a.m. C-SPAN. "John McLaughlin's One on One": The future of the Middle East peace process, 2:30 p.m. (28). "Tony Brown's Journal": Black and Jewish interactions, 3:30 p.m. (28).

Absorbed by the demands of organizing a new Administration, George Bush may not have noticed the dark cloud that blew in over the Middle East a few weeks ago, begging some show of urgency of a President who has refused to be hurried. The cloud blew in from Paris, where 150 nations met to consider proposals for reducing the dangers of the apparent spread of chemical and, perhaps, biological weapons.

Mark Kroeker, former deputy Los Angeles police chief, has been appointed to a committee charged with finding ways to identify and eliminate the root causes of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The committee was established at the Middle East peace process summit meeting at Wye River Plantation in Maryland last month. The committee will be made up of four Americans, four Palestinians and four Israelis. It is to be called the Trilateral Anti-Incitement Committee.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly lectured President Obama on the shortcomings of his plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks during a tense Oval Office appearance that laid bare the strained relations between the leaders. Admonishing a president of the United States on international television, Netanyahu rejected the plan outlined by Obama that would use the borders in effect before the 1967 Middle East War as the starting point for negotiations, saying that doing so would risk Israel's security and force it to negotiate with "a Palestinian version of Al Qaeda.

Who wants peace? Re "Expectations dim for Netanyahu's U.S. trip," May 17 The canard that the U.S. or Israel must make a hoped-for "bold move" to further motivate the Palestinians to come to the table to negotiate for their state is another example of either misguided optimism or downright malice toward the Jewish state. The statement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his trip to the U.S., is "going to have to give Obama something to work with if he wants America to help" is particularly vexing.

The world shared the American people's gratitude for the special forces who rid us of Osama bin Laden, but there was one flagrant exception. "We condemn the assassination of an Arab holy warrior," declared Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Hamas regime in Gaza, who also deplored "the continuing American policy … of shedding Muslim blood. " This is the same Hamas that has launched hundreds of suicide bombers and thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians. Hamas terrorists have held Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, in solitary confinement for nearly five years without a single Red Cross visit.

Who gets the ax? Re "Pact would limit teacher protections," Oct. 6 As the husband of a longtime L.A. Unified teacher who acknowledges that not all teachers have the same skills, I am saddened once more by UTLA's "head-in- the-sand" attitude that all teachers are equal and that seniority is the only criterion for personnel decisions. This is not the case in any field. To hold steadfast to this archaic belief does a great disservice to the teaching profession.

Something unexpected broke out at last week's relaunch of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians: a glimmer of what looked almost like optimism. After two years of estrangement and truculence, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas put on their best behavior, said all the right things about seizing the opportunity and even huddled chummily together like old friends, which they are not. Of course, we have seen this opening ceremony before.

The latest round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which began this week in Washington, leaves even the most loquacious Middle East experts without much to say. No bold offers have emerged from either side, and President Obama has yet to show the blend of grit, gregariousness and ingenuity that made Bill Clinton an effective mediator. All we can expect with certainty are more bouts of brinksmanship. The problem is even tougher than most pessimists realize. It goes far beyond Israel's refusal to suspend settlement construction in the West Bank or the Palestinian Authority's struggle to curb Hamas, the terrorist group that shot four Jewish settlers to death this week in an attempt to derail the talks.

U.S. special envoy Richard W. Murphy met with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on Thursday in what he described as a "constant search" for ways to revive efforts toward a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement. Murphy crossed the Jordan River into Israel earlier Thursday to give Shamir a report on his two days of talks with King Hussein and Jordanian officials in Amman, where no progress was evident. "This was a time for continued quiet diplomacy.

After 18 months of faltering efforts to launch Middle East peace negotiations, President Obama is dramatically increasing his personal stake and his own political risk by hosting direct talks this week. Obama personally helped coax Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to come to Washington to meet with him Wednesday and resume talks the next day. Some of Obama's advisors have questioned the wisdom of linking the president so visibly with such an intractable conflict.

President Obama and other U.S. officials have explored whether the administration should offer its own Middle East peace proposal to break the logjam between Palestinians and Israelis, officials said Wednesday. At a time of growing frustration in the White House over the lack of a peace agreement, Obama and aides recently discussed whether the administration may need to turn to such an approach, officials said. Two weeks ago, Obama talked about Middle East peace efforts with a number of former senior U.S. officials in Democratic and Republican administrations meeting at the White House with Gen. James L. Jones, the national security advisor.