Hardline Israel set to raise difficulties for Clinton mission

Occupied Jerusalem: Embarking on her first trip to the region as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton pledged that the Obama administration will unshakeably support Israel's security and vigorously pursue the creation of a Palestinian state.

That's not substantially different from Washington's stated Middle East policy in recent years. But Clinton is likely to find herself and US policy at loggerheads with the new government of Israel, soon to be headed by the conservative Likud leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Clinton acknowledged for the first time that the US was dispatching two State Department officials to Syria, a country that's on the US list of terrorist sponsors. "We are reaching out to determine what, if any, areas of cooperation and engagement are productive, and that includes Syria," she said.

From the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to dialogue with Syria to trying a different tack with Iran over its nuclear programme, the Obama foreign-policy team's approach looks markedly different from Netanyahu's.

How Clinton handles those gaps will ultimately shape how effective a role she can play in a mired Middle East peace process.

After a meeting on Monday with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Clinton said that as good friends, the US and Israel could sustain differences of opinion, adding jokingly: "Israel is not shy about expressing opinions" about US policy.

"We happen to believe that moving toward a two-state solution is in Israel's best interests," Clinton said. "It is our assessment that eventually, the inevitability of working toward a two-state solution is inescapable."

But Netanyahu, a longtime critic of the Oslo peace process that brought about the creation of the Palestinian National Authority, isn't committed to a two-state solution. His refusal to include a stated promise to pursue such a peace deal in his government guidelines is the main reason Livni, head of the centrist Kadima party, has spurned offers to join Netanyahu's coalition.

In response to a question at Monday's press conference with Clinton, Livni took an indirect swipe at Netanyahu's values, reaffirming her decision to become an opposition leader rather than join Netanyahu's government.

"I take my pursuit of a two-state solution as a meaningful stance and not as a slogan," Livni said. She said that any leader who is dedicated to maintaining Israel as a state that is both Jewish and democratic cannot come to any other conclusion. "Anyone who wants to defend those two values knows that." She said that a two-state solution was the real route to "return hope, not just to the Palestinians, but to us."

But Livni will not be foreign minister for long. She leaves office as soon as Netanyahu can forge a coalition government, which is widely expected to happen in the next two weeks.