Washington: Without suggesting a new path toward Mideast peace, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed frustration with the Israel-Palestinian impasse while insisting the Obama administration will "not lose hope."
She said the US will keep pressing for a solution, and she called on Israelis and Palestinians to set aside their differences.
"It is no secret that the parties have a long way to go and that they have not yet made the difficult decisions that peace requires," she said in a dinner speech Friday at the Saban Forum, a Mideast policy seminar sponsored by the Brookings Institution think-tank. "And like many of you, I regret that we have not gotten farther, faster."
She spoke just days after the administration dropped an effort to persuade Israel to impose a temporary freeze on some colony activity. The Palestinians insist that direct peace talks cannot resume until Israel halts colony construction.
Clinton made clear that she believes the Israelis and Palestinians are ultimately responsible for settling their long conflict.
"Unfortunately, as we have learned, the parties in this conflict have often not been ready to take the necessary steps," she said. "Going forward, they must take responsibility and make the difficult decisions that peace requires. This begins with a sincere effort to see the world through the other side's eyes, to try to understand their perspective and positions. Palestinians must appreciate Israel's legitimate security concerns. And Israelis must accept the legitimate territorial aspirations of the Palestinian people. Ignoring the other side's needs is in the end self-defeating."
Improvement in security
And she said the status quo is untenable.
"I know that improvements in security and growing prosperity have convinced some that this conflict can be waited out or largely ignored," she said. "This view is wrong and it is dangerous."
Following Clinton to the podium, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak predicted that without an Israeli-Palestinian peace, the cycle of Mideast violence will be perpetuated. He said Israel needs the "political wisdom" to find a way to a two-state solution: a secure Israel existing side-by-side with an independent Palestinian state.
Clinton said he said that despite the latest setbacks, the US would not give up its effort to draw the two sides towards a final settlement. And she said the establishment of a Palestinian state through negotiations is "inevitable."
"We will push the parties to grapple with the core issues," she said. "We will work with them on the ground to continue laying the foundations for a future Palestinian state. And we will redouble our regional diplomacy. When one way is blocked, we will seek another. We will not lose hope and neither should the people of the region."
Clinton did not mention the administration's frequently repeated goal of achieving at least the outline of a final peace settlement by September 2011. That goal was set when Israeli and Palestinian leaders came to Washington in September to resume negotiations — a process that quickly broke down over disagreement on Israeli colony activity in the West Bank.
She pledged to stay actively involved, but she offered no new strategy for achieving the peace deal that has eluded other US administrations.
