Mitchell in 'Times' Interview: "We Are Asking Everybody To Do Things"

After a week during which numerous American officials were in Israel, George Mitchell insists that the US has made progress in its talks with Israelis and Arabs alike in an interview in today's New York Times. Mitchell disputes reports that Arab countries have rejected American requests for initial steps toward normalization with Israel and he challenges views that the Obama administration has only focused on Israeli actions as "completely inaccurate":

But while the negotiating has continued - mostly in closed-door sessions with few comments for the press, in keeping with Mr. Mitchell's close-to-the-vest style - reports in Israel, in particular, have focused on the claim that the Obama administration's pressure is alienating Israelis even while it is failing to sway Arabs.

"One of the public misimpressions is that it's all been about settlements," Mr. Mitchell, the administration's special envoy to the Middle East, said in a rare interview Friday after six months on the job. "It is completely inaccurate to portray this as, 'We're only asking the Israelis to do things.' We are asking everybody to do things."

Another misperception, he said, was that Arab countries had rebuffed Mr. Obama's request to make moves toward a more normal relationship with Israel - a perception fueled by a Saudi official's blunt public rejection of such incremental steps in Washington on Friday.

"We've gotten, over all, a very good response, a desire to act, some public statements to that effect from the crown prince of Bahrain, the president of Egypt," said Mr. Mitchell, who returned last week from his fifth trip to the region, including stops in Israel, Egypt and Syria. Saudi Arabia's negative public comments, other officials said, bear little relation to what it is saying in private.

George Mitchell downplayed the comments made by the Saudi foreign minister last week.  The Times continues:

 "Incrementalism and the step-by-step approach have not, and we believe will not, achieve peace," the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said after meeting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Temporary security, confidence-building measures, will also not bring peace."

Mr. Mitchell, however, insisted he was getting a very different message in his private meetings with more than a dozen Arab leaders, including the Saudis. Many, he said, were ready to consider new measures.

He declined to discuss what kinds of steps, but other officials said the United States was pushing for a package of measures ranging from Arab countries' opening commercial offices in Tel Aviv to their leaders' granting interviews to Israeli journalists. Another step would be getting Arab nations to allow Israel's state carrier, El Al, to fly over Arab countries to cut flight times to Asia.

Even the Saudis, he said, "want to be helpful. They, like everyone we're talking to, want a peace agreement that will lay the foundation for the end of this conflict. I truly believe that's what they want."

The trick, analysts said, is persuading both sides to act simultaneously when each wants to see the other move first.

Despite the challenges that have risen in his attempts to negotiate with Netanyahu on the settlement issue and with Arab leaders on their own gestures to demonstrate willingness and compromise, George Mitchell remains optimistic and strives to put the talks into context: "These are discussions among friends, not disputes among adversaries."

The Times article reports that the White House will begin a public relations campaign in the next month in an effort to communicate publicly with the Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab communities:

The campaign, which will include interviews with Mr. Obama on Israeli and Arab television, amounts to a reframing of a policy that people inside and outside the administration say has become overly defined by the American pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction on the West Bank.

In Israel, public opinion toward Mr. Obama, which was skeptical to start with, has soured because of the tension over settlements. In the Arab world, there is little evidence of a change of heart toward Israel.

To get even that far, however, the United States may have to do more aggressive public diplomacy, according to analysts. Mr. Obama, commentators in Israel noted, delivered his major speech on the Middle East in Cairo. He has not yet visited Israel as president, and in the view of some, has not laid out his broad strategy to the Israeli people in a persuasive manner.

"Even if it was wise to focus on settlements, what the administration failed to do was provide a context," said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel who has advised Mr. Obama on the Middle East.