US attempts to assuage Palestinian concerns

Laura Rozen reported yesterday on a shift in the U.S. administration's statements on movements on the Israeli and Palestinian fronts toward renewing the peace process. She quotes Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns as saying:

We seek to create the best possible circumstances for negotiations, working with the parties, working with key regional partners like Egypt and the Quartet. We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements; we consider the Israeli offer to restrain settlement activity to be a potentially important step, but it obviously falls short of the continuing road map obligation for a full settlement freeze. We seek to deepen international support for the Palestinian Authority’s impressive plan to build over the next couple years the institutions that a responsible Palestinian state requires. And we also seek progress toward peace between Israel and Syria, and Israel and Lebanon, as part of a broader peace among Israel and all of its neighbors.

This clarification came after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that Israeli actions toward a settlement freeze were "unprecedented" and President Abbas's announcement that he would not seek reelection in January.

Rozen concludes that Burns's speech is an attempt to appeal to Palestinian concerns so as not to lose a peace partner.

The Obama administration now seems to be trying to desperately signal to Abbas that it is trying to give him more to work with -- and hoping it is not too late."Almost everything cited here shows a subtle but noticable shift back towards the Palestinian perspective," says the American Task Force for Palestine's Hussein Ibish.

Burns's statement was made on Monday, the same day that Netanyahu and Obama met in private for 70 minutes. Shimon Shiffer reported in Yedioth Ahronoth that Obama's aides explained that the meeting was low profile so as not to embarrass Abbas.

Obama wants to the help the PA chairman and not create the impression that he is coordinating steps against him with Netanyahu-said American administration figures.

A senior White House official said he hoped that the meeting would dispel the tension between the two. In private conversations, Netanyahu talked yesterday with satisfaction about what he thinks is the understanding that the US president displayed for the positions and willingness of the Israeli side to promote the chances of putting the negotiations with the Palestinians in motion.