JERUSALEM: Israel’s next leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, sat face-to-face yesterday with a man whose vision of Israeli-Palestinian relations is radically different from his own: George Mitchell, President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy.
Mitchell wants Israel to halt settlement construction and resume negotiations to establish a Palestinian state. But Netanyahu, the prime minister-designate, favors expanding settlements and thinks negotiations on Palestinian statehood are pointless.
Obama has promised to make Mideast peace a priority in his administration and has dispatched Mitchell twice to the region in his first month in office. Hillary Rodham Clinton is due in the area next week on her first trip since being appointed the new US secretary of state.
The meeting with Mitchell was Netanyahu’s first since he was tapped to lead Israel’s next government. Netanyahu said the meeting was “positive and productive” and the two still “have a lot to talk about.” Mitchell had no statement following the meeting.
The two seem to be at odds on some key issues. Mitchell wants to press ahead with peace talks that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu avoids any talk of Palestinian statehood and instead says peace efforts should focus on building up the Palestinian economy. Mitchell has urged a freeze of Jewish West Bank settlements, while Netanyahu says existing settlements must be allowed to expand.
Mitchell met later in the day for talks with outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose spokesman Mark Regev described them as positive. Today, Mitchell will hold talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak before heading to the occupied West Bank for meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Earlier, in Ankara, Mitchell said Turkey would play a “key role” in Obama’s efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East. Mitchell said Turkey’s ties with Israel and Arab countries was an asset for Obama’s promise to make Arab-Israeli peace a foreign policy priority.
“Turkey is a crucial ally of the United States and an important force for peace and security in the Middle East,” Mitchell told reporters after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan told Mitchell Washington should engage Hamas if progress is to be made on peace in the Middle East, a Turkish government official who was present at the talks said.
Mitchell arrived in Israel yesterday from Turkey and headed straight into a meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni before sitting down with Netanyahu. Livni said she and Mitchell discussed the donor’s conference and how it could help the people of Gaza.
