George Mitchell is still obsessing about the settlement moratorium. Bibi says he wants to continue direct talks. And the voice of sanity — get this — comes from Egypt:
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit criticized the Palestinian Authority for its “insistence” on a moratorium on building in the settlements.
In an interview with London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, Aboul Gheit said waiting for a renewed freeze will only complicate peace talks, and that the most important issue is borders. Aboul Gheit also hinted that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does not think a settlement freeze is essential.
Mitchell and his boss are clearly the least savvy operators in the Middle East. Maybe the best thing for the peace “process” — aside from calling an end to it — would be for the Obama administration to get out of the picture. Before the Obami came along, settlements were not a make-or-break issue, talks without preconditions were continuing, economic and security progress were evident in the West Bank, and our relations with Israel actually were “rock-solid,” to borrow Hillary Clinton’s disingenuous description of her administration’s relationship with Israel. I suspect if Mitchell packed up and left, and if Obama focused less on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and more on Iran, all the players in the Middle East would be a lot better off.
