By Deng Yushan, David Harris
Visiting US special envoy George Mitchell on Tuesday pushed President Barack Obama's Mideast peace agenda with senior Israeli officials, yet notably with a soothing hand.
His ongoing trip, which includes meetings with Palestinian officials on Wednesday in the West Bank, is sandwiched between two eye-catching policy speeches: one by Obama last week about US-Muslim ties, and the other to be given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday about Israel's diplomatic affairs.
During his landmark address aimed to mend relations with the Muslim world, Obama urged Israel to freeze settlement expansion and abide by the two-state principle, and said that he would be personally involved in the Mideast peace process.
With Obama's vision in mind, Mitchell met with senior Israeli officials throughout the day, and apparently changed the listening mode he took during his previous visits to a speaking mode, calling on Israel and the Palestinians to meet their obligations and resume peace talks immediately.
"We are working hard to achieve the objective of comprehensive peace in the Middle East... including a Palestinian state side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel," said the former senator to Israeli President Shimon Peres.
"Israelis and Palestinians have a responsibility to meet their obligations under the Road Map," added Mitchell, stressing that a peaceful solution is in the interest of not only the two sides but also the United States.
Despite mounting US pressure, Israeli government has so far refused to follow Obama's call. The Jewish state is campaigning for the so-called "natural growth" of West Bank settlements, and the two-state principle has never crossed Netanyahu's tongue.
The Israeli leader is expected to clarify his positions on the decades-old conflict in Sunday's address, which is widely seen as a response to Obama's speech. Yet as his ruling coalition is dominated by right-wing parties, which oppose concessions to the Palestinians, Netanyahu seemingly has little to offer to Obama, which risks putting Israel at odds with its closest ally.
However, while extending a pushing hand, Mitchell also reached out a soothing hand, trying to temper anxiety about a possible collision of the two allies. A face-off between them would probably serve only to jeopardize Obama's agenda.
"We come here to talk not as adversaries and in disagreement, but as friends in discussion," he said alongside Netanyahu prior to their meeting, stressing that the US commitment to Israel's security is "unshakable".
"America usually uses psychological rather than actual or brutal pressure when it comes to her allies," said Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the United states.
"In the past, there were differences of opinion between Washington and Israel, but we've usually overcome them. It's in neither their interest or ours for disputes to be long running," he told Xinhua.
Meanwhile, some remain skeptical that Washington has already mapped out the road ahead, arguing that any major progress would be announced by Obama himself, not his representative.
"I don't think he's coming with anything tangible," said Galia Golan, a professor of political science and a senior figure in Israel's Peace Now movement, adding that Mitchell is possibly still at the fact-finding stage.
"He's been sending out these rumors preferring to go quickly to talks on a final-status agreement, but I think those are just hints," she added.
Noting that recent sparring between Israel and the United State focused on the settlement issue, Golan cautioned that Obama and Mitchell should not be carried away by the minutiae of a specific question.
"Obama has concentrated on the settlements, so all the discussion is about the settlements. There hasn't been any real reference to what steps should be taken besides the settlements issue," she said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)
