Tag Archives: george mitchell

Mitchell to spend more time with children? Or to stop babying Israeli diplos?

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In case you missed it, George Mitchell resigned yesterday, Friday, May 13. He was most recently Obama’s “Special Envoy for Middle East Peace” or some such nonsense. He is a former Senator from Maine. Word on the street here (in Maine) is that he resigned in order to spend more time with his two elementary-school-aged children (the man is something like seventy). Word on the Twitter street is that his resignation is a symbol of American withdrawal from the current peace process strategy, which could actually be an interesting admission of its ineffectiveness. Anyway. That’s all.

Oh, and of course, Netanyahu is playing the blame game and putting none of it on his own administration.

Netanyahu expressed his disappointment in Mitchell’s decision to quit, and in the Palestinians’ refusal to attend talks that Mitchell worked so hard to advance. The prime minister added that the Palestinians “set countless preconditions that made [Mitchell's] work difficult, and at the end of the process even united with Hamas.”

A plea for help

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Wow, it’s been a while. Sorry! I just returned to the States, Ariel’s been traveling, and Linda’s back stateside, so I think we’re all pretty busy. If you’ve been reading Mondoweiss in the last few weeks, though, you’ll have seen some posts from myself and Shiri. Yay!

I have a proposition and request for the readership: I want to write an open letter to George Mitchell addressing his neglect of the Palestinians in Israel in his (useless) diplomatic dealings in the Middle East. I need help; ideas, perspectives, quotes, statistics, comments, whatever. Especially some sort of proof that he’s never met with a Palestinian citizen, that would be extremely helpful. Common knowledge, but I’d like a factual basis.

If you want to help write, or sign such a letter, let us know!

Some flailing explanation

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The 250+ comments alone on yesterday’s Mondoweiss post kind of speak for themselves, but really what they tell me is that people don’t want to read what I’m writing or listen to what I’m trying to say. (This isn’t universal; certainly there were a few supportive comments, and plenty that were off-topic enough to be benign or amusing or, indeed, helpful.)

I just want to say that though I’m sure everyone finds the path by which it is necessary to take to reach the conclusions that I did is somehow revolutionary or incendiary, the point was a little bit that (1) two-states are unsustainable and (2) two-states ignores the Palestinians inside Israel, but more importantly it was that (3) media and even public discourse outside Israel is caught up in the diplomatic mentality and cannot see the entirety of the problem or the legitimate range of alternatives.

Anyway, I would really appreciate a counter-piece, or an expansion piece…or comment…

Is the US ready to try something new? Highly unlikely.

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Obama’s envoy to the Middle East, former Senator George Mitchell, is due for yet another visit in Israel.

U.S. special envoy George Mitchell will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday evening to put forth U.S. ideas for moving the peace process forward.

Mitchell is expected to make clear to Netanyahu that the Obama administration wants him to take a position in the coming weeks on the core issues, with an emphasis on borders.

Mitchell is also scheduled to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. But the brunt of the work will be in Israel because the Palestinians have already submitted their opening positions on all the core issues – borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, water and the settlements.

The Americans have heard little new from Netanyahu, with the exception of ideas on security and aspects considered secondary such as the environment and the economy.

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