President Barack Obama has shared with leaders in Egypt and Israel an ambitious plan to bring a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within two years. Talk about a tall order. This according to London’s Arab-language paper A-Sharq al-Awsat and via Israel’s liberal daily Haaretz:
A source in Cairo told the newspaper that Obama raised the plan with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter’s visit to Washington last month. According to the report, the plan envisions a Middle East peace deal by 2011 and would encompass an agreement for a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu is expected to respond to the proposal within six weeks, a deadline set after Obama’s address in Cairo.
The Egyptian source said that Obama elaborated on the plan during his visit to Egypt last week in talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omer Suleiman and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. The Egyptian officials were implored to respond as soon as possible.
The Sunday Times reported earlier this month that Obama had given himself a two-year deadline to reach a breakthrough on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
The administration has been firm in its declarations that it would pursue a two-state solution and Obama has vowed to “change the conversation” with the Muslim world in order to widen the diplomatic circle involved in the peace process.
Read the rest here.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.