President Obama And Israeli PM Hold Talks

In a surprise move - because they kept it a secret from the press until the Israeli Prime minister arrived in the US - President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting today at the White House. They once again discussed Middle East peace, which has eluded all prior presidents and is out of reach for Obama as well. The main sticking point currently is over Jewish settlements in land that the Palestinians claim. Although Israelis have cut back on their settlements, it is not enough for Palestinians. And there is another blockade forming on the road to peace: President Abbas of the Palestinians may not run for another term.

BBC News is reporting:

Mr Obama's administration has made Israeli-Palestinian peace talks the cornerstone of its Middle East policy.

However, its peace efforts have recently suffered two setbacks.

The Palestinians say a settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank is a precondition for a renewal of talks, and Washington has been backing their stance.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered Arab leaders last week when she praised Mr Netanyahu's offer of a limited easing of settlement building as "unprecedented".

The second blow came when moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced he would not seek re-election because of the impasse in peace negotiations.

He accused the US of backtracking by refusing to persuade Israel to freeze Jewish settlement building.

Mr Netanyahu, in his speech in Washington, said that "no Israeli government has been so willing to restrain settlement activities as part of our efforts to relaunch peace talks."

MSNBC is reporting:

Obama has eased U.S. pressure on Israel over settlements, calling for restraint in construction where he had earlier pushed for a freeze. Palestinians say that shift in policy has killed any hope of reviving negotiations soon.

Netanyahu has rebuffed Obama's call for an immediate halt to construction of settlements and said it should not be a precondition to restarting peace talks.

The settlement issue is a major obstacle in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and has opened the most serious rift in Israel's relations with the United States in a decade.

Washington says it still wants a freeze on settlement building but that it need not be a precondition for talks, as Abbas, a moderate supported by the West, is demanding.

"We are ready to talk and the Palestinians aren't. It's as simple as that," Netanyahu told reporters traveling with him to Washington on Sunday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced strong Arab criticism over the U.S. stance on the settlement issue during a visit to the region last week.

She insisted Washington still wanted a freeze on settlement construction but believed that resuming peace talks was the best way to curb them.