Barack Obama offers a White House dinner with a menu of Middle East peace:
The U.S. president, Barack Obama today offered a private dinner at the White House four Middle Eastern leaders to relaunch the negotiations for a historic agreement that will lead to peace finally troubled region. The White House said it would release only one official photo of the working dinner in the dining room of a private residence, but Obama had already made clear, both in bilateral meetings and in press statements that the goal of dialogue is to end Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Seated at the table were Barack Obama, the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Also accompanied Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, representing the Middle East Quartet (U.S., Russia, UN, European Union).
Barack Obama has managed to sit at the table to break bread with Netanyahu and Abbas is an achievement in itself, according to observers, taking into account that the negotiations have remained in the freezer after an Israeli offensive in 2008, 20 months ago, which claimed the lives of 1,400 Palestinians. Even before that incident had friction, so they will be the first direct talks “substantive” between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since 2000.
In any event, social function and symbolism of the dinner are unavoidable: the White House has hosted other dinners in the past to Middle Eastern leaders, hoping that by sharing a meal, they foster an environment for
dialogue. Before dinner, Barack Obama and the four leaders were solemn but statements from a crowded East Room of the White House, which on this occasion wore the flags of their countries.
Barack Obama reiterated that his Government continues to support a two-state solution to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories which dates from 1967 and allow the creation of a Palestinian state coexisting
peacefully with Israel and all its neighbors. Netanyahu said he did not come to Washington for blame or excuses but “an historic agreement that will allow both peoples to live in peace, security and dignity.”
Abbas said he is willing to cooperate to ensure the success of the peace process but stressed that Israelis must do their part, starting with the freezing of settlements in the West Bank and freedom of movement of
Palestinians. The road ahead will not be a walk of roses, by the plethora of issues on the table, which in the past have thrown away the negotiations: the definition of borders, security, refugees and future water resources.
Judging from the statements today, an unshakable case for both sides is the settlement and, before raising the first glass is the most threatening to hinder this new effort. Therefore, a major challenge for the parties will put aside decades of mistrust, resentment and recriminations. Both Israelis and Palestinians have taken steps to get to this point “but that does not mean that this will be easy, no way”, recently warned the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs.
“This has been tried again and again over the past three decades, and I think it will take some time to overcome the issues” that have hampered the process, Gibbs acknowledged. Before dinner was still spoken of Tuesday’s attack at the hands of the militant group Hamas, near the West Bank city of Hebron, home to hundreds of Jewish settlers.
That attack, which killed two men and two women, one pregnant, served as a reminder to the guests of the White House is still very easy to sabotage these early negotiations.The dinner and meetings today at the White House sought “heat engines” for the official re-launch of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians morning at the State Department.The goal, according to Netanyahu, is that the parties in conflict to declare “shalom”, the Hebrew word for “peace.”
