Mideast peace hopes rekindled

In an effort to restart stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week struck a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a 90-day freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. The deal, which still needs Israeli Cabinet approval, would provide Israel with $3 billion in U.S. fighter jets and a U.S. commitment to oppose any international recognition of a unilateral declaration of Palestinian sovereignty. The agreement amounts to a bet that peace negotiations, including land swaps that might render some settlement issues moot, will make enough progress in 90 days to keep the Palestinians from abandoning talks. President Obama called the deal “promising,” and specifically praised Netanyahu. “It’s not easy for him to do, but I think it’s a signal that he is serious,” Obama said.

“The Obama administration deserves credit” for not giving up on the peace process, said The New York Times in an editorial. While both Palestinians and Israelis have bogged down talks, Netanyahu in particular seems more interested in “mugging for his hard-line coalition” than in making hard choices for peace. This “generous” deal puts the onus on Netanyahu to get back to the bargaining table.

And who will negotiate with him there? said Steve Huntley in the Chicago Sun-Times. Instead of leaping at the chance to “restart talks aimed at awarding them their long-sought goal” of a Palestinian state, Palestinian leaders responded with “bellyaching” that Israel’s latest concession didn’t include construction projects in Jerusalem, “which is not a settlement.” Rather than contribute to hopes for peace, Palestinians and their “enablers” invariably do the opposite.

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This effort may have “stronger legs than jaded onlookers have realized,” said The Economist. Obama is making American support of Israel “conditional”—demanding a settlement freeze in return for what previously had been “unconditional” U.S. support. It’s a “subtle” way to push Israel to agree to “final borders with a putative Palestinian state in the West Bank.” It just might work.