On Tuesday, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will spend some time with President Bush in Washington.
Hopefully, they will engage in some “re-visioning” of what is possible in moving forward on the resolution of Israel’s borders in a negotiated process leading to a Palestinian state.
There is great debate about how to get there, but without a negotiated resolution to the Israel-Palestine standoff, America will never move a credible program of public diplomacy in the Middle East forward. They are connected — and given the quagmire America finds itself in Iraq and quickly boiling tensions with Iran, there are many geostrategic and moral reasons why America (and Europe) should be committing themselves to a pro-Israel/pro-Palestine deal-making process.
More on this later, but for one hopeful view, read Daniel Levy’s talking points for the leaders which appeared Sunday in the Boston Globe.
— Steve Clemons
