His [Mitchell’s] main message will be the need to apply pressure, especially from the Arab states, on the Palestinian Authority to resume negotiations with Israel. At last week’s meeting of the Quartet, Mitchell told the delegates there was no prospect of Israel agreeing to a complete halt in construction in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have been demanding.
We are seeing the complete capitulation of the Obama administration to the Netanyahu government and the Israeli Lobby. Once again American Mideast foreign policy becomes a mere extension of US domestic politics. As in the Clinton years, it is demanded of the Palestinians that they be the ones to adjust to American and Israeli political realities.
