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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR2009110403768.html
The Mideast Impasse
[Washington Post] Editorial - Mahmoud Abbas has participated in peace negotiations with five Israeli governments that refused to halt Jewish settlement construction. Yet Abbas has rejected an appeal from the Obama administration to start talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, putting one of the administration's primary foreign policy goals on indefinite hold. Has Abbas suddenly realized that settlements are the key obstacle to a Palestinian state? Hardly: In private, senior Palestinian officials readily concede that the issue is secondary. Neither Arab leaders nor Abbas seem to share Obama's notion that the time is ripe for a deal. Israelis note that Abbas already rejected a far-reaching peace offer by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. The Obama administration's working assumption has been that energetic diplomacy by the U.S. could induce both sides to move quickly toward peace. In fact, progress in the Middle East has always begun with initiatives by Israelis or Arabs themselves.