Obama to Mideast Leaders: Time to Do More

President Holds Meeting With Israeli and Palestinian Leaders; Breakthrough Seen as Unlikely

(CBS/AP)  Updated 2:51 p.m. ET

Pressing for elusive Mideast peace, President Barack Obama on Tuesday challenged Israeli and Palestinians leaders to do more, saying it was time to "find a way forward." It was the president's most direct engagement yet on a problem that has vexed leaders for years.

In a moment deep in symbolism but offering little expectation of any immediate breakthrough, Obama brought together Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for their first three-way meeting. Obama's words as the meeting got under way showed frustration with the looming gap between the two sides as the U.S. again tries to foster a deal.

"Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations," Obama said. "It is time to move forward."

Obama got specific with his expectations for both sides and outlined a timeline of steps for the coming weeks, eager to show momentum.

Palestinians, he said, "need to do more to stop incitement and to move forward with negotiations." Israelis "need to translate [discussions on restraining settlement activity] into real action," the president said.

The president used the occasion of a U.N. General Assembly session to arrange the get-together, a high-stakes proposition, on the same day that he went before world leaders to proclaim a strong U.S. response to climate change and ask world partners to step up their efforts in that respect. His New York meetings set the stage for Obama to move to center stage later in this week when he hosts the G-20 summit of leading industrial and developing nations, in Pittsburgh.

Neither Netanyahu nor Abbas spoke during a brief appearance before reporters as the meeting got under way. But after Obama's brief opening remarks, the president strode over to shake each of their hands. Then the two foes reluctantly shook hands as well, with dozens of cameras clicking to record the moment.

The three-way sit-down began about an hour late, after Obama had met individually with both men.

Obama said everyone has "worked tirelessly" but still not done enough.

"It is time to show the flexibility and common sense and sense of compromise that’s necessary to achieve our goals," the president said, after restating the U.S. commitment to a two-state solution. "Permanent status negotiations must begin and begin soon. And more importantly, we must give those negotiations the opportunity to succeed."

He went on to say that "we have to summon the will to break the deadlock that has trapped generations of Israelis and Palestinians in an endless cycle of conflict and suffering."

The meeting unfolded on the sidelines of U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York, where Obama engaged in personal diplomacy and addressed a high-level climate summit convened by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Mark Knoller: Obama Frustrated, Impatient With Mideast Peace Process

Obama held out the United States as a serious partner in combating global warming, telling world peers "we are determined to act."

"The journey is hard. And we don't have much time left to make it," Obama said in brief remarks at the climate summit after Ban admonished leaders to put aside differences and move more quickly on global warming.

The president sought to show U.S. resolve ahead of crucial talks in Copenhagen in December, when nations will try to reach a new global treaty to address climate change.

Obama is under pressure to put political capital behind getting a serious clean-energy law at home and show that the U.S., an economic giant, will do its part to cut heat-trapping emissions. The U.S. House passed a bill this summer that would set the first mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, but a Senate version appears increasingly unlikely this year.

In his first presidential visit to the United Nations, Obama also sought to show a clear break from former President George W. Bush without referring to his predecessor by name. Bush's critics said he didn't take climate change seriously enough.

"It is true that for too many years, mankind has been slow to respond to or even recognize the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own country as well," Obama said. "We recognize that."

Tuesday's U.N. summit and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh later this week seek to put added pressure on rich nations to commit to greenhouse gas cuts and to pay for poorer nations to burn less coal and preserve their forests.

Obama sought repeatedly to hold everyone accountable. He said developed nations such as the United States have a "responsibility to lead" but rapidly-growing nations must do their part.

Obama's Mideast diplomacy efforts, although expectations were low for Tuesday's three-way meeting, it was seen as a crucial step for the president nonetheless.

The Israeli-Palestinian sit-down wasn't announced until Saturday and comes with the two sides still far apart on what it would take to resume peace talks that broke off in 2008.

U.S. envoy George Mitchell failed last week to bridge the gap between the two sides on the issue of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory, putting the long hoped-for three-way meeting in doubt. Obama has asked Israel to freeze all settlement construction, a condition for Abbas to resume negotiations. But Israel has only committed to a partial halt.

Still, the sides decided to go ahead, even though Obama is considered unlikely to resolve the settlement showdown and announce a relaunching of peace talks.

"We have no grand expectations out of one meeting," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Obama's agenda on Tuesday also included meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao at a fraught time in the Washington-Beijing relationship; playing luncheon host, as America's first black president, to sub-Saharan African leaders for talks on boosting opportunities for young people in their poverty-stricken nations; delivering key speeches to former President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative and to a U.N. heads-of-state session on the stalled issue of climate change; and ending the day with a U.N.-sponsored leaders dinner.

More Coverage of Obama in New York this week.

Obama to Mideast Leaders: Time to Do More
Mark Knoller: Obama Frustrated, Impatient With Mideast Peace Process
Washington Unplugged: Don't Expect Much from U.N. Summit
Obama Sits Down With Chinese Leader
U.N. Climate Summit Leaves Large Carbon Footprint
Obama: It's "New Era" on Climate Change Policy
Photo Essay: World Leaders Talk Climate Change
Obama's U.N. Debut: A Dizzying Agenda

[SkirtLifter]

""Palestinians, he said, "need to do more to stop incitement and to move forward with negotiations." Israelis "need to translate [discussions on restraining settlement activity] into real action," the president said.""

better chance that a camel will squeeze thru the eye of a needle than these two peoples getting along.

Better chance of haint-talkin joining the republican party than Jews and Palestinians smokin' a peace pipe.

better chance of Rowdy sayin' something nice about Al Sharpton than ...



you get the picture.

[stuart-johns]

Now that is funny. LOL

[Turbidite]

Obama has now asked the Palestinians to drop the settlements issues as a pre-condition to talks. It was Obama that demanded a freeze on settlemnts, and now he says let's drop that. In other words the Zionist movement has made the president of the USA bow down.......again. Just tell the Israelis to get out of our faces and never expect any help from our country in the future.

[moisnhcrnr]

Why do we support Israel? I bet the same Jews that are adamant about separation of church and state are against separation of Israel and US.

[6591Hou]

The Israeli's don't want to stop building and the Palestinians don't want to stop firing rockets......sounds like we're done there.

[Questionews]

As long as you Neocons see fit to drag Clinton's B.J.s up then we are going to drag Bushwacker's failures up.

by tmittelstaed September 22, 2009 4:35 PM EDT




How can you equate getting a BJ with the word failure??
I'm sure Bill didn't view as a failure & neither would most men!!
Because we're pigs!! Pigs that can do other things too, but still pigs!!

[hermitdave]

As long as there is religion in the world with enough humans believing some GOD promised this pile of sand to the Jews, this story will never end. It is hard to believe in the year 2009 that the human brain has not developed beyond understanding the obvious fact that MAN made GOD not the other way around. Man did this to control the ignorant masses and religion has been home to con artists since the first cave man ended up with all the rocks, calming those in fear, with wild stories.

All the death and maiming as Palestinians defend their land, using what weapons they can get from the Muslim world, against Israel that has massive weapons from their friends in the western world. Very much a David and Goliath war. So like many presidents before him, Obama is just paying lip service as the Jews continue to steal land and build on it. The fake war on terror makes it even harder to solve since the Palestinians fit the profile of the Dick Cheney "WORST OF THE WORST" making them easy to hate as Americans continue to believe their governments LIE that evil Muslim terror dudes were responsible for 9/11/01.

[tmittelstaed]

There will always be religion in the world because religion offers a more pleasant explanation of what happens to you when you die, than science does. And people will chose the more pleasant alternative if given a choice.

There are very few non-believers in foxholes. You are either very special, or you have never been in battle. I would bet that it's the latter.

[Orlandojon]

How many photos have you seen of the leaders of Israel and the Palistinian terroists shaking hands? Since Jimmy Carter I've probably seen at least 30. How's the peace process working? Israel put of the wall and all but eliminated the suicide bombers, so I guess thats a plus.

[payback108]

Fix what you have here at home first then trying playing in the middle
east

[rplat]

"by nextgenman09 September 22, 2009 1:46 PM EDT
Exactly, If Bush hadn't been such a dismal failure at EVERYTHING we wouldn't have this problem."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Give it up . . . that old tired, whiny garbage no longer has even the slightest affect.

[slownewsday_5]

Did you mean "effect"? And maybe Bush's failures don't have any resonance with you, but they do to a majority of those in the middle who feel stranded with no party.

It's one reason that, if the Republican party doesn't step up and attempt to dial back its social conservatism in favor of its original fiscal conservatism, it will drive away all but the extreme right and be replaced by another major party.

Hopefully a moderate Libertarian party....

[nextgenman09]

Yet its still true, Bush was a dismal failure. That is fact, that is history. QED.

[rplat]

Tell me when I can stop yawning.