Hillary Clinton speaks at the opening of a forum in Marrakech on Tuesday.European Pressphoto Agency
U.S. Reins In Its Expectations for Middle East Peace Talks -- Wall Street Journal
CAIRO -- The Obama administration is scaling back its ambitions for the Arab-Israeli peace process, focusing on maintaining some degree of low-level dialogue in the face of big divisions between the two sides.
U.S. officials began outlining Washington's diminished expectations as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton completes a one-week tour of the Middle East on Wednesday. She had tried to kick-start a new round of talks during stops in Israel and Arab capitals, but the divisions proved too wide to bridge.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused U.S. calls for a complete freeze of settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Palestinians have ruled out resuming negotiations without the freeze.
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My Comment: The U.S. policy of maintaining a dialogue between all the parties even though both sides have no interest to compromise or alter their positions has a certain appeal to me. Better have them talking .... instead of shooting at each other.
Unfortunately .... this is a policy that has been the policy for the past few decades, and it is now reaching a tipping point. Everyone has expectations, and if they are not met there will be disappointment. For the Palestinians .... they have clearly reached this point of disappointment.