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U.S. Weighing Israeli-Palestinian-Gulf Peace Summit
(Jerusalem Post) Michael Wilner - U.S. officials are quietly gauging interest in holding a conference over the summer that would bring Gulf Arab leaders, the Palestinian Authority president and Israel's prime minister onto the same stage, Israeli sources told the Jerusalem Post. "The president wants to bring them over - a public event with them," a senior Israeli source said Tuesday. "I think it's feasible, but the question is what happens after." As a precondition to the conference set by Arab participants, Israel would have to agree to an informal, unspoken freeze on future housing construction outside of established settlement blocs, said the official. Israeli officials believe that public engagement with Saudi Arabia and its regional partners would be a major diplomatic achievement. But some officials are nervous that a conference teasing the promise of peace talks would raise Palestinian expectations - that would quickly be dashed when direct negotiations invariably fail to take off. "It can lead to an intifada if we don't have a plan for afterwards," a second official suggested.