Israel-Palestine: Mixed Reception for US Envoy Mitchell in Tel Aviv

Israel FM Lieberman: Distance from US, No Agreement with Palestine
Israel-Palestine: Sacrificing the Goldstone Report to the War of Politics

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President Obama's special envoy for the Middle East, George Mitchell, is back in Israel. He  held talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres on Thursday and is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today before moving to the West Bank to speak with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas this weekend.

Mitchell's visit comes midst increasing tension between Israelis and Palestinians over the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem and pressure on Abbas over the Goldstone Report on Gaza. The envoy did not refer to those events; instead, Mitchell told Peres of his hope that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians can be restarted soon and of Obama's commitment to bringing peace to the region. After Mitchell gave him the same message, Barak portrayed Israel as the "partner" of United States in the peace process, adding, "The time has come to move forward to start the process and pass all of the obstacles, because this will help everyone... No obstacle is impassable!"

But Barak's words were not echoed by Lieberman, who is calling for detachment from the US and ruling out peace with Palestine in the near-future: "I will tell [Mitchell] clearly, there are many conflicts in the world that haven't reached a comprehensive solution and people learned to live with it." Since it was not the right time for a final agreement, Lieberman suggested that Mitchell should focus on an interim accord, leaving "the tough issues for a much later stage".

Haaretz reports that a senior U.S. official told Israeli reporters that Mitchell's visit was not likely to conclude with an announcement of renewed talks. Israeli sources, however, said --- despite Lieberman's unhelpful intervention --- that this was "within reach."

Israel FM Lieberman: Distance from US, No Agreement with Palestine

Israel-Palestine: Sacrificing the Goldstone Report to the War of Politics

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Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has reached boiling point. After the leak of a secret memorandum calling for a radical refocus of Israeli foreign policy toward the developing world, he said on Thursday that "it was not the right time to have a final peace agreement with Palestinians".

Lieberman's five-page memorandum is calling for a move from  "lone dependence" on Washington, even if there is no replacement for Israel's special relationship with the United States) to  broader and closer ties with other world powers.

Doing this, Israel will expand ties with "neglected" parts of the world and create a "zero-tolerance" policy for anti-Semitic expression. But here's the immediate significance: Israel will also lower international expectations of a breakthrough in negotiations with the Palestinians

For the time being, this is the only official "response" from Washington, coming when tState Department Spokesman Ian Kelly was asked about Lieberman's statement on Israel Radio:

QUESTION: Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman.

MR. KELLY: Foreign Minister.

QUESTION: He made this [statement] through Israeli radio – TV?

MR. KELLY: Yeah. No, I haven’t seen that. And we certainly see some urgency in moving beyond our facilitation of getting these talks started, to actually getting them started. And I know that Senator Mitchell, Special Envoy Mitchell is in the region. He met today with President Peres and with Foreign Minister Lieberman. And he’s also meeting, I think, now with Defense Minister Barak. He plans to see Prime Minister Netanyahu tomorrow, as well as Prime Minister Abbas tomorrow.

The Ultimate Israel-Palestine Football Match

UEFA president Michel Platini said, during a visit to Jerusalem on Tuesday, that he believes football can play a role in bringing about peace in the Middle East. Maybe, he is right. Maybe, it is only football that can bring peace to the region...

After Platini's words, we thought how two sides might come together, shake hands before the kickoff, and talk politics in the middle of the pitch. Imagine Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drinking from Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas's water and Israeli President Shimon Peres congratulating Hamas political diretor Khaled Meshaal's freekick goal. Just imagine...

The Palestinian Squad:

1 - Salam Fayyad - PA Prime Minister
2 - Bassam Al-Salhi - Leader of The Palestinian People's Party
3 - Ahmad Sa'adat - General Secretary of The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
4 - Khaled Meshal - Hamas leader in Syria
5 - Farouk al-Kaddoumi - Secretary-general of Fatah's central committee
6 - Aziz Duwaik - the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council
7 - Saeb Erekat - Palestinian Authority negotiator in Israeli-PA peace process
8 - Ismail Haniyeh - Hamas leader in Gaza
9 - Nayef Hawatmeh - Leader of The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
10 - Mahmoud Abbas - PA President
11 - Saleh Ra'fat - Leader of The Palestinian Democratic Union

The Israeli Squad:

1 - Shimon Peres - President
2 - Yitzhak Aharonovich - Minister of Internal Security
3 - Silvan Shalom - Vice Prime Minister
4 - Moshe Ya'alon - Vice Prime Minister
5 - Avigdor Lieberman - Foreign Minister
6 - Ehud Barak - Defense Minister
7 - Danny Ayalon - Deputy Foreign Minister
8 - Dan Meridor - Deputy Prime Minister
9 - Eli Yishai - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs
10 - Benjamin Netanyahu - Prime Minister
11 - Ya'akov Ne'eman - Minister of Justice

Ref: George Mitchell (USA)