Obama "Confident" In Mideast Peace Process

Meeting Palestinian Leader At White House, Obama Urges Israel To Stop Settlement Development

(AP)  Gingerly trying to advance Mideast peace, President Barack Obama on Thursday challenged Israel to stop settlement construction in the West Bank on the same day the Israelis rejected that demand. Obama pushed Palestinians for progress, too, deepening his personal involvement.

"I am confident that we can move this process forward," Obama said after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House. The president said that means both sides must "meet the obligations that they've already committed to" - an element of the peace effort that has proved elusive for years.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told The Associated Press after the session with Obama that no meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are on the horizon. He said there are no preconditions for such a meeting but "obligations" on Israel through the so-called road map for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Abbas said he is meeting his commitments under the road map and that Israel should do the same. He cited continued settlement construction as a commitment Israel is not meeting.

Earlier in the day, Israel rejected blunt U.S. requests to freeze Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank, a territory that would make up the Palestinian state, along with the Gaza Strip, as part of a broader peace deal.

In strong language, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had said Wednesday that Obama wants a halt to all settlement construction, including "natural growth." Israel uses that term for new housing and other construction that it says will accommodate the growth of families living in existing settlements.

Israeli spokesman Mark Regev responded Thursday by saying some construction would go on.

"Normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue," he said, noting Israel has already agreed not to build new settlements and to remove some tiny, unauthorized settler outposts. Regev said the fate of the settlements would be determined in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

With that as a backdrop, Obama said part of Israel's obligations include "stopping settlements." But he also struck a hopeful tone.

He said he had pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the settlement matter just last week at the White House, and that the Israeli leader needs to work through the issue with his own government.

"I think it's important not to assume the worst, but to assume the best," Obama said.

The president also pushed Palestinians to hold up their end, including increased security in the West Bank to give Israelis confidence in their safety.

Obama said he told Abbas the Palestinians must find a way to halt the incitement of anti-Israeli sentiments that are sometimes expressed in schools, mosques and public arenas. "All those things are impediments to peace," Obama said.

The Palestinian leader said "we are fully committed to all of our obligations" under the road map. Doing so, Abbas said, is "the only way to achieve the durable, comprehensive and just peace that we need and desire in the Middle East."

Obama, like predecessor George W. Bush, embraces a multifaceted Mideast peace plan that calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The president refused to set a timetable for such a nation but also noted he has not been slow to get involved in meeting with both sides and pushing the international community for help.

"We can't continue with the drift, with the increased fear and resentment on both sides, the sense of hopelessness around the situation that we've seen for many years now," Obama said. "We need to get this thing back on track."

Abbas is working to repackage a 2002 Saudi Arabian plan that called for Israel to give up land it has occupied since the 1967 war in exchange for normalized relations with Arab countries. Abbas gave Obama a document that would keep intact that requirement and also offer a way to monitor a required Israeli freeze on all settlement activity, a timetable for Israeli withdrawal and a realization of a two-state solution.

"The main purpose of presenting this document to President Obama is to help him in finding a mechanism to implement the Arab peace initiative," Abbas told the AP.

Asked about his impression of the meeting with Obama, Abbas said: "It was a serious and open meeting and President Obama seems determined on what he has said to us and to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the necessity of implementing the road map, and we have agreed to continue our communications."

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Obama affirmed to Abbas that Israel has an obligation to freeze settlement expansions, including natural growth.

The U.S. and much of the world consider the settlements an obstacle to peace because they are built on captured land the Palestinians claim for a future state. But successive U.S. administrations have done little to halt settlement activity.

Now more than 120 settlements dot the West Bank, and Palestinian officials say their growth makes it increasingly impossible to realize their dream of independence. More than 280,000 Israelis live in the settlements, in addition to more than 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank. An additional 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to establish their capital.

Israelis will be anxiously watching Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo, where he will deliver a message to the Muslim world to try to repair relations that frayed badly under the Bush administration. Obama will also visit Saudi Arabia before he goes to Egypt.

"I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," Obama said of his Egypt speech. "That will require, I think, a recognition on both the part of the United States as well as many majority Muslim countries about each other, a better sense of understanding, and I think possibilities to achieve common ground."

[croft777]

Did anyone have any doubt that Hussein Obama would do anything but side with his Muslim brothers?
Posted by vinylogy at 8:16 PM : May 31, 2009


No doubts here, I already new what Obama would do.Does he think the Israeli's are ignorant? The Israeli's are far from ignorant, they know what those towel heads are up to. They know that if they leave the Gaza, and let down their guard, those towel heads will stab them in the back, or cut off their heads, one ofr the other. Well, Obama, don't count me in to your buddy buddy friendship with people who have only one agenda, to kill all those who are not ike them. I don't blame the Israeli's for not trusting them, I wouldn't either, considering that dictatorship surrounds Israel on all four sides.

[vinylogy]

Did anyone have any doubt that Hussein Obama would do anything but side with his Muslim brothers?

[earth562]

So, I guess if you don't agree with the left wing Jewish media, than u should be banned for expressing an opinion that some people don't agree with. I can understand some ididot getting banned for making threats, but when did it become illegal too disagree on certain issues?
Posted by Banned4HavingAnOpinion at 2:22 PM : May 31, 2009

You forgot about the Jewish banking system and that they run the world in a secret bunker in a hidden cave in the Alps not to mention an entire bagel monopoly.

[dsr57]

If God talked to people, he would NEVER talk to the religious extremists and nut jobs who claim to "hear from God" or claim that their interpretation of religious writings are the "one and true word of God". All nut jobs. All extremists. All RESPONSIBLE for MOST WARS and the cause of most conflicts.

Posted by DefendLiberty

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He talked to Jesus and everyone seems to believe that.

[dsr57]

Special relationship with England? Yes. Western Europe? Maybe. Israel? Pure fiction.
Posted by incog-nito
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Because we helped Put Israel there smart guy. Also, we knew it would help to have Non Arabs on our side in case S h i t Popped off. Israel will always let us put a base there if needed

[earth562]

Israel wants Palestinian land, not peace.

Actions show their true agenda, not their words.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 3:43 AM : May 29, 2009

Absolutely right!
Posted by stuart2570 at 5:42 AM : May 29, 2009


and another usefull idiot on board the Kool-Aid train

[dsr57]

I can't understand why we still care, this S hit has been going on for as long as I remember, Has anyone else gotten to teh point that you could care less what happens to these two countries ? ? ? ?

[YrSoWrong]

The Assad Family Business will go unscrutinized by the mystics that post here.

[armyoftwelve]

I feel confident too. Confident that nothing good will come of this. If Ehud Barak and Arafat couldn't make peace happen then there is no way an ideologue like Netanyahu and an impotent president like Abbas will be able to make anything happen.

[alanrobisch]

I find it humorous that Obama feels confident of peace in the middle east. this has been an eternal search. He does not have any magic key. Until the Palestinians are willing to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist no peace is possible. Whether Israeli's are heavy handed or not at times no peace will come until both sides want peace. The palestinians do not want peace unless you mean a piece of Israel. Unless Israel capitulates and surrenders their right to sovereignty there will be no peace there. Any other source of peace is illusory.

I expect that there are posters here who would want that but I dare them to say that if they were Israeli citizens they would feel that way

[factsearcher]

Israel wants Palestinian land, not peace.

Actions show their true agenda, not their words.
Posted by formrusmcsgt at 3:43 AM : May 29, 2009
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

How many more ignorants subscribe to this one...going once!!!...

1. There is not a palestinian land- the so called palestinians are half jordanian half egyptian...which by the way are doing nothing, nada, zero to help their fellow brothers. Palestine as it is claimed and sold in propaganda is only that ...propaganda to hide the real issue of antisemitism.
2. History tells us that the land the so called palestinians are claiming was never an issue or of interest until Israel was created...which takes us to #3
3. Israel was created by a british mandate accepted and approved by United Nations-the land was not occupied or stolen or anything palestinians claim...again another false story and statement made by them to be seen as martyrs.
4. Jordan and Egypt have made peace with Israel- but nobody can make peace with the palestinians...they are taught since birth to be parasites and martyrs
5. Any other population living where palestinian live would have made the land prosperous, economy and infracstructure risen, better healthcare conditions, more productive nation...but NO..the PLO made sure their people only worries would be to drag israelis to the sea.

Now my question.....who can make peace with such people????
You may argue the conditions they live in is, of course, Israel responsibilty...not Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Lebanon...Israel's fault all the way.
But if US would be bombarded, attacked with suicide bombers, rocket shooting on a daily basis...trust your senses that they would not be able to make peace with the attackers either...same thing Europe and anywhere in the world.
However, we ask of the israelis to give more land, more resources, give away their capital of Jerusalem....to make peace.
THere has to be peace first..how you ask?
Peace means recognizing Israel existance and right to exist, to include Israel in their maps and education, to stop teaching palestinians to hate israelis, stop violence completely, to teach them to produce and make peace by being peaceful and then and only THEN....
THere could be a two state solution side by side in PEACE.
Peace will never be achieved if it is only one sided

[thusspokezara]

did you mean a waterboard ride?

[thusspokezara]

How much longer are we gonna have to put up with this Israeli Palestinian conflict? Each side should pick 1000 of its best soldiers. Then we fly them to Los Angeles. Let them go at each other mano a mano at the Coliseum. Whoever wins gets to keep the Promised Land. The losers move to either Detroit or Brooklyn. Problem solved and we can Move On to more important stuff like the Cubs winning the World Series.

[onesword]

I think the two leaders should get into a boxing ring in neutral territory and whoever wins gets their wish. If it's a tie then someone else determines what they should do.

[dwilson59]

This war has gone on for too long. I say we kick both the Israelis and Palestinians out and turn the region into an amusement park.
Posted by thusspokezara at 7:46 AM : May 29, 2009

Thank You for making me smile

[onesword]

If that is your scale, then it is clear that we can all expect Obama to go down hill during the rest of his term. Obama is still trying to find worthy people to fill many offices. Some those people are very questionable. History speaks for itself.
Posted by rocketjl

If I were Obama I would fill those positions with university and college grads. Fresh ideas you know.

[edward1975-2009]

There will be no peace in the Middle-east till groups like Hamas are eliminated. And anyone with a brain knows this. Obama is spinning his wheels. Palestinians have to come to the same conclusion. These extremist will forever be the fly in the ointment.

[rocketjl]

Please slow down on the rhetoric and give me a chance to pull-up my trouser legs so they don't cover in the stuff you are handing out. I hear a lot of comparisons between Bush and Obama. Really, give me something to work with. Folks are trying to blow smoke in my ear about what one guy did/did not do in '100' days, compared to the other guys 'entire term in office'. If that is your scale, then it is clear that we can all expect Obama to go down hill during the rest of his term. Obama is still trying to find worthy people to fill many offices. Some those people are very questionable. History speaks for itself.

[thusspokezara]

This war has gone on for too long. I say we kick both the Israelis and Palestinians out and turn the region into an amusement park.

[valh1]

Obama is giving a speech to the Muslim world on June 4th. We better straighten up and fly right or he will be saying how bad we are here in the awful US of A. He will apologize for all the previous administrations and how hateful we all have been. Only Obama is above the fray. He is nearing perfection and the only way to make up for our past egregious behavior is to be as much like Obama as we can be.