WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With a diplomatic push from President Barack Obama, Israeli and Palestinian leaders start direct peace talks on Thursday overshadowed by skepticism on all sides and violence in the volatile West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet at the State Department, relaunching talks after a 20-month hiatus and seeking a deal within one year that will set up an independent Palestinian state side-by-side with a secure Israel.
Obama, who has staked considerable political capital on the Washington talks during a pivotal U.S. congressional election year, urged both sides to grasp the chance for peace after separate meetings at the White House on Wednesday.
“This moment of opportunity may not soon come again. They cannot afford to let it slip away,” Obama said after a day of personal diplomacy on a problem that has confounded generations of U.S. leaders.
But opponents of a settlement and the concessions that would be required to reach it threatened to
Will the talks result in true peace or a peace that exists only on paper. Though the Obama administrations efforts are in the right place, is their involvement directed towards a vision of real peace or a motive other than that.