The Israeli West Bank barrier. Photo Flickr user ChrisYunker

Palestinian leaders have agreed to a further round of indirect negotiations with Israel, more than a year after the last attempt to reach a settlement broke down in December 2008.

The planned negotiations, which do not yet have a timetable, will be mediated by the U.S., and special envoy George Mitchell will travel between the two delegations. Direct talks are not envisaged at this stage.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization has set a four-month limit on the process, and its leaders have said they do not expect results from the renewed talks, which have been endorsed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Israel and the U.S.

In a recent development that has strained the peace talk proposals, yesterday Israel has approved the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit. Israeli officials say the approval was granted before a 10-month moratorium on new construction in Jewish settlements within the disputed territory.

Israel has also approved plans to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, an area not included in the moratorium but which the international community considers occupied territory.

This is how some commentators and bloggers have reacted to the renewed dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leaders:

From Tikum Olam, a liberal Jewish-American blog:

[A]las it’s all a charade. For all the “proximity” the two sides may have they are universes apart on virtually every major issue that divides them. No commentators I have noticed have remarked upon the fact that these talks are in fact a deep regression from previous rounds of talks which, during the Olmert government, were direct and without U.S. mediation. Those talks too were largely ineffectual. But at least the parties had enough trust in each other that they were willing to talk face to face.

From a Talking Points Memo blog:

Everybody knows the core issues between Israelis and Palestinians, except for the one that will matter the most and can be acted on immediately, before any comprehensive deal; the one where Israel’s concessions will not compromise its security but enhance it. I am speaking of Palestine’s economy, specifically, its private sector, the driver of civil society and spine of any future state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks about “economic peace,” but seems to mean little more than giving Palestinian laborers more jobs in Israeli agriculture and construction projects. What Palestinians need, rather, are entrepreneurs, managers, and professionals with the freedom to build a growing node in an urban and global network. The latter have made a remarkable start, but the occupation is thwarting them in ways few outsiders appreciate.

From Beneath the Surface, commentary on the peace talks:

Most people saw through Netanyahu’s peace bluff in June, but for those who believed the “outstretched” arm he supposedly gave the Palestinians, he just went against his campaign promises. Does Israel want peace with Palestine? By the decisions made the last couple of days it doesn’t seem like it, it seems like Israel want Palestine to surrender to their terms. Netanyahu has been given credit by vice-president Joe Biden for his indirect initiative to peace negotiations, but in reality the prerequisites that he laid aground for these negotiations were a joke!

From an opinion article in Haaretz, an Israeli center-left newspaper:

Israel must talk to Hamas. Not secretly. Not indirectly. Not for a politician to rehabilitate himself on the way to taking over the leadership of a party, as Kadima’s Shaul Mofaz tried to do, but openly and seriously. Just as the United States regularly talks to the Israeli opposition, Israel should maintain a dialogue with the Palestinian opposition. The dialogue should cover all core issues including a final settlement.

View footage of a checkpoint outside of the Beitar Illit settlement, which has a majority ultra-Orthodox Jewish population:

- James Matthews

Today, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the talks could begin as early as Sunday.

Few people know the Middle East as well as Martin Fletcher, a former NBC News correspondent who spent nearly 20 years as the Tel Aviv bureau chief. Daljit Dhaliwal speaks to Fletcher about the latest developments in the peace process.

The topic on Al Jazeera Arabic’s controversial yet highly popular talk show “Opposite Direction” this week was the Obama presidency, one year later.

The host questioned the sincerity of President Obama’s outreach to Arabs and Muslims. Faisal al-Qasem, the Syrian host of al-Itijah al-Mo’akis, likened President Obama to a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing.

Al-Qasem accused Obama of speaking from both sides of his mouth and alleged that the Arabs’ problem was believing Obama’s sugar-coated words:

Al Arabiya news channel reported on the upcoming African Cup football match between Egypt and Algeria. Egypt beat Cameroon 3-1 to set up a repeat of the intense World Cup playoff against Algeria.

The last time these two teams faced each other was in Khartoum, Sudan, which was followed with violence and enormous tension across the Arab world.

Today’s lead headline in Israeli center-left newspaper Haaretz was about Israeli president Shimon Peres’ speech to the German parliament. Speaking on the anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp’s liberation, Peres called for the surviving perpetrators of the Holocaust to be brought to justice.

Abdel al-Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, published in London, wrote an op-ed yesterday on the stalled Middle East peace process — in light of U.S. envoy George Mitchell’s recent visit to the region.

Atwan, who was born in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, is an outspoken critic of many Arab governments. He attributes Mitchell’s lack of progress to:

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to retain Jewish settlements in the West Bank and keep complete control of those areas.

• The refusal of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table again without an Israeli commitment to a freeze on settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

• U.S. President Barack Obama giving in to Israeli pressure on the settlements.

Atwan argues that another intifada is likely because of the stalemate in the peace process. He also thinks Fatah and Hamas may be forced to reconcile if progress is not made.

- Mohammad Al-Kassim

However, a year later, there is some movement toward a resumption of talks. Mitchell will be going back to the region in the next few days, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to meet tomorrow with officials from Jordan and Egypt.

To take a deeper look at the issues, Alon Ben-Meir, a senior fellow at New York University’s School of Global Affairs, joins Daljit Dhaliwal. Ben-Meir discusses why the timing is right to resume the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. He also talks about the new role settlements are playing in the peace process.

Currently, Barghouti is the Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party that was formed in 2002 with Edward Said, Dr. Haidar Abdel-Shafi and Ibrahim Dakkak. The Initiative (al-Mubadara in Arabic) calls for nonviolent resistance against the Israel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Worldfocus producer Mohammad al-Kassim recently interviewed Barghouti in New York. The rising Palestinian politician talks openly about the difficulties facing the Middle East process, infighting among Palestinians and the Obama administration. Despite all the obstacles, Barghouti feels surprisingly positive about the future.

Also, listen to Barghouti on Worldfocus Radio: Jerusalem United or Divided?

Remains of the Berlin Wall Photo: via flickr by riotcitygirl

SOUTH KOREA: As Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall, South Koreans reflect on their own version of the wall, which represents the last Cold War frontier - with communist North Korea. Editorials in South Korean newspapers urge the country to contemplate their own division and be seriously prepared for a possible re-unification of the Koreas.

CHINA: China blocked a website that displays twitter messages with thoughts on the fall of the Berlin Wall after nearly 2000 Chinese web users in the country posted their tweets on the site. The Berlin Twitterwall is supported by Reporters without Borders and has displayed more than 6000 messages so far.

JAPAN: President Barack Obama will visit Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea later this month.

SUDAN: Sudanese President Omar al Bashir will not attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting held in Turkey on Monday. Turkey was experiencing pressure from the European Union over its decision to invite Bashir to the conference with an warrant out for his arrest for war crimes in Darfur.

SOMALIA: Two Kenyans working at a printing business in Somalia were kidnapped on Sunday in the capital Mogadishu. The kidnappers are now demanding a ransom.

ZIMBABWE: A top aide to Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai went on trial on Monday on charges of terrorism. Roy Bennett’s case has caused serious friction within Zimbabwe’s unity government with Tsvangirai saying the case is politically motivated.

UK: Britain is taking new steps to create eco-friendly public transportation. An airport bus at East Midlands Airport will be run on fuel produced from decomposing organic waste.

Gordon Brown apologized to the mother of a soldier who was killed in Afghanistan to whom he had sent a handwritten condolence note on which he misspelled both the family name and her son’s first name.

GERMANY: As the world marks the 20th year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, many Berlin residents celebrated the event. Yet others marked the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht, known as the Night of Broken Glass, during which Jewish business were ransacked in 1938.

EL SALVADOR: Mudslides in El Salvador have left 124 dead and dozens missing.

VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez has warned the Venezuelan military to be prepared for a possible war with Colombia.

LEBANON:Lebanon’s opposition has agreed to a proposed national unity government, paving the way for Prime-Minister designate Saad al-Hariri to form a government.

SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia announced that its forces regained control of territory seized last week by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

SYRIA: During Monday’s meeting in Istanbul of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Syrian President Bashar Assad warned that the failure of the Middle East peace negotiations will lead Arabs to turn to resistance as an “alternative solution.”

IRAN: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also in Istanbul for a one-day Islamic summit, while international pressure is increasing on Iran to agree to United Nations agreement on its nuclear program.

ISRAEL: US President Barack Obama will meet with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israeli leader’s trip to Washington amid growing tension over the stalled peace process and Israeli settlement policy.

PALESTINE: Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah marching towards the Palestinian presidential compound in an attempt to persuade President Mahmoud Abbas to reconsider running for reelection. Also, Palestinian protesters managed to remove a segment of the Israeli-built wall in the West Bank village of Qalandiya today.

Yuli Edelstein, the Minister of Public Affairs and the Diaspora in the Israeli cabinet, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the prospects of peace in the Middle East and why Israel won’t agree to a settlement freeze.

Al Jazeera English’s John Terrett reports on the challenges and reasons behind Abbas’ decision to bow out of politics — including the expansion of Israeli settlements and the impartial U.S. stance.

MYANMAR: The United States wants to see real progress in Myanmar towards democracy before any policy changes, said a senior U.S. diplomat after the first high-level talks between the two nations in more than a decade were completed.

JAPAN: Toyota Motor Corporation announced a surprise profit last quarter, suggesting a gradual recovery may be under way for Japan’s automakers.

CHINA: China’s ministry of health is going to ban the use of beating to treat teenagers addicted to the web. There are dozens of treatment centers in the country that offers to help teenagers withdraw from their web addiction by using military-style boot camp methods with tough extreme physical exercise and counseling.

NIGERIA: Late Wednesday Nigeria recorded its first swine flu case. The virus was found in a 9-year old girl from the United States living in Lagos.

MAURITANIA: Despite a law enacted in 2007 criminalizing slavery, the practice still persists in the northwest African country of Mauritania. That’s according to an independent UN representative who recently toured the country.

GERMANY: Thousands of Opel workers went on strike to protest GM’s move to stop the sale of Opel, a move which GM has said will cost thousands of German jobs.

SWEDEN: The Scandinavian country approved a gas pipeline which would bring natural gas from Russia to Germany. The move has already been approved by Denmark, and needs the go-ahead from Finland, Russia, and Germany to move forward.

UK: The Bank of England said Thursday it would inject an additional 25 billion pounds into its economy.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Forty-five percent of Czech citizens believe that social conditions are better today than before 1989, according to a poll published prior to the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. Seventy-four percent pointed to the desire for freedom as the main factor behind the revolution.

RUSSIA AND CIS:

Russian investigators have arrested two people they say are responsible for last summer’s killings of human rights activist Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburina.

Swine flu deaths are on the rise in Russia, where fifteen people have died thus far from the epidemic. Buryatia–the latest region to declare a swine flu emergency–has banned all mass gatherings and is requiring every individual to wear a mask in public.

A Wassily Kandinsky painting has sold at Sotheby’s for $9.4 million. Sales of Russian art at Sotheby’s this week have netted more than $13 billion.

Police have seized more than 48 buckets of salmon caviar and 9 boxes of crab meat from poachers on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. Illegal poaching is a main source of livelihood for many residents of the area.

Time reports on global warming skeptics in Russia and the challenges the rest of the world faces in getting Russia to sign on to reductions in emissions targets in advance of next month’s Copenhagen conference.

Bloggers and free speech activists are criticizing Russia’s largest search engine Yandex for pandering to Kremlin censorship, the Times of London reports.

MEXICO: An American airman was killed in a Ciudad Juarez bar along with five other people last night, bringing the total number of homicides to 30 over the last four days.

Authorities in Mexico have arrested three doctors and a nurse at a private hospital for telling mothers that their newborns had died and then selling the babies.

CUBA: Russia and Cuba have signed four accords that will allow a Russian state energy firm to run oil exploration projects on the Island for the next 25 years.

ISRAEL: Haaretz newspaper reports that a ship seized on Wednesday by Israeli security forces has been released. Israeli officials said it contained tons of weapons supplied by Iran to Hezbollah.

LEBANON: In its official channel Al Manar TV, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah denied Israeli allegations that the ship Israel intercepted on Wednesday was headed for Lebanon. Hezbollah says that Israel is creating a distraction from the Goldstone report on war crimes in Gaza.

IRAN: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei’s said that a resolution to the dispute over Iran’s ongoing nuclear program could be the key to a stable Middle East.

PALESTINE: In an emotional speech, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed he will not seek reelection.

SAUDI ARABIA: Al Jazeera English is reporting that Saudi fighter jets have pounded the strongholds of Houthi combatants in northern Yemen after an earlier confrontation between Shia fighters and Saudi security forces killed two Saudi security men.

PAKISTAN: The Pakistani military said it has killed some 28 militants in South Waziristan.

AFGHANISTAN:The United Nations announced today said that it is temporarily relocating more than half its international staff in Afghanistan following last week’s deadly Taliban attack against UN workers. Also from Kandahar, Afghanistan, an overnight airstrike by international forces killed nine civilians, including at least three children.

The meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not produce a breakthrough, but it was a moment deep in symbolism — the beginning, perhaps, of a new and more productive phase in the struggle for peace in the Middle East.

For his part, Obama had a strong message for the leaders after meeting with them individually: Get moving again on a comprehensive peace agreement.

After the meeting, Netanyahu said there was general agreement that the peace process has to be resumed as soon as possible with no preconditions.

Ghassan Shabaneh, an assistant professor of international studies at Marymount Manhattan College, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss the significance of the meeting for the peace process.

Tunnels near Rafah.

On Monday, one day before U.S. President Barack Obama was scheduled to meet in New York with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s air force launched an attack on Palestinian targets in the southern Gaza Strip.

The targets were three tunnels Israel says are used to smuggle arms into Gaza across the border from Egypt. The Israeli army said the attack was a response to rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian militants from Gaza over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo with Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak. Abbas repeated the Palestinian position that negotiations with Israel cannot resume without an agreement by Israel to freeze Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

If Israel imposes a freeze on all settlement construction, are you confident there would be a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Marius Arnesen under a Creative Commons license.

Ghassan Shabaneh, an assistant professor of Middle East and International studies at Marymount Manhattan College, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the dispute, what steps the Obama administration can take and Obama’s meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mary Boys, a professor of theology at the Union Theological Seminary, discusses the pope’s relations with Jews and Muslims and how his trip is being perceived on all sides.

Read blogger reactions to the pope’s trip and his statements below.

The pope conducted mass in Manger Square, where he gave his condolences to the suffering people living in Gaza. Blogger “Lionel” describes attending the papal mass and the mood in the region:

Yesterday’s papal Mass at the Kidron valley was something [...] of a letdown. Security was super tight. There was a tension in the air. The pope had just been criticised for his yad Vashem speech and the sheikh had hijacked the conference that made the pope walk out. [..] The crowd was noticeably very small — mainly foreign pilgrims and religious nuns. Even the number of priests were very limited…it was pretty subdued.

I left for Bethlehem at 8pm after the Mass ended. Stayed overnight but got up real early to go to Manger Square in front of the Basilica of the Nativity for the 2nd papal Mass this morning.  Now here the Mass was packed packed packed!!!! And we had Catholics from Gaza and other refugee camps like Jenin, Zebibde and even Taybe and other West Bank districts closed by Israeli security. And many women wore traditional bedoiun costumes. It was like a carnival — the combined choir was leading in songs and chanting “Benedetto! benvenuto!” (Benedict! Welcome!) It was a stark contrast from yesterday’s sombre (one nun said it was like a funeral) mood. Here in Bethlehem, people were standing on chairs, singing, waving flags, interrupting the homily with shouts and claps.

After Mass the pope went to greet the Christians from Gaza — everything broke loose — a security nightmare. All the refugees rushed to plead with the pope for help and the security had to surround the pope to protect him and whisk him off quickly. Palestinian security was pretty tough as well. Snipers on every rooftop in Manger Square.

Blogger Tom Hein in Israel writes about the widespread preparation prior to the pope’s visit:

One of big events in the news of Israel is the arrival of the Pope in Jerusalem. All week long I have been seeing preparations in the old city for his arrival. For example, down in the Kidron Valley a gigantic platform stage was erected, seating set up in cordoned sections interspersed with imported olive trees and tons of gravel so that people in robes don’t have to walk on the dirty grimy floor of the Kidron Valley. Actually they’ve cleaned up everything around the city. One of our tour guides said that the city is not usually this clean, but they are giving it the spit and shine for the Pope.

Since the pope is arriving there are thousands of soldiers lining the streets around the old city, a blimp bouncing around in the sky overhead, and the roads are blocked with buses parked sideways across the width of the roadways. I guess that this is to stop someone from driving up in a car or truck with a bomb or trying to ram the popes automobile. It is a really massive operation, hard to describe how many soldiers I’ve talked to today as I’ve gone here and there. I went up high on one precipice to see the view, and I had a soldier follow and check for bombs in the flower pots! When he didn’t find any bombs he visited with me a bit which was fine. I respect and appreciate soldiers, and I just took it that he was doing his duty to keep an eye on me. People are not allowed to drive up here to the old city and there are certain roadways blocked to pedestrian traffic as well. Some people are upset because they have to take an alternative route around anywhere the pope is going. I understand why it’s necessary.

User “Max” comments on a Catholic blog about his experience as a Christian in Bethlehem:

I am a Christian Palestinian from Bethlehem […] I lived most of my life here, got baptized and confirmed here, went to Catholic schools etc. I have to say that blanket hatred of other religions does not resemble anything that I ever learned about Christianity. Muslims and Christians have been living peacefully together in Bethlehem for centuries now. Throughout my life Muslims here have been my good neighbors, classmates, friends, work colleagues and most of all fellow Palestinians with whom we have shared the experience of 42 years of a brutal Israeli military occupation of our city. All we want is to simply be free.

Like many Christian Palestinians I am also sadly making plans to emigrate from Palestine. I am doing so not because of my Muslim neighbors but because it is extremely demoralizing to live in a city that is besieged by Israeli walls and is constantly shrinking as Israel confiscates more and more of our privately owned lands to build Israeli settlements. Our beautiful city is starting to resemble a fenced in ghetto in which we have to maneuver Israeli army checkpoints on a daily bases with a regular dose of harassment and intimidation.  It would be a remarkable gesture for the pope to visit Gaza. If he does so I hope, as a Christian, that he would do this not only as an “expression of solidarity with the Christian community”, but with all Palestinians in Gaza who are still suffering from the aftermath of a barbaric attack that cannot be justified.

Also, read editorial consultant Peter Eisner’s analysis of the pope’s visit: Israel parses pope’s words at Holocaust memorial.

Worldfocus producer Mohammad al-Kassim interviews Dr. Sameeh Shbaib of Birzeit University in the West Bank.

On Wednesday, a second round of talks between leaders of the rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah began in Egypt. The talks between the two factions are aimed at forming a national unity government that can better work for a common Palestinian cause.

The Islamist Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and has controlled the Gaza Strip since expelling Fatah forces in June 2007. After its victory in 2006 parliamentary elections, Hamas was given the responsibility to form a Palestinian government. This led to tensions and a power struggle with Fatah, a secular movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Fatah is largely in control of the West Bank and supports the creation of a Palestinian state in a land-for-peace deal with Israel based on the 1967 borders.

Dr. Sameeh Shbaib lectures on philosophy and cultural studies at Birzeit University in the West Bank and recently sat down with Worldfocus producer Mohammad al-Kassim to discuss the ongoing talks in Cairo.

Mohammad al-Kassim: What’s your take on the first round Palestinian national reconciliation meetings in Cairo in mid-March?

Sameeh Shbaib: As Palestinians, we are faced with two different powers — Hamas and Fatah. Hamas is a Islamic political movement that has its own ideology, which is different that the national Palestinian political movement established in 1964. The Palestinian National Covenant [the charter of the PLO] has always been the sole representative of the Palestinian people. Hamas carries its own weight and is a real player in the Palestinian political structure and that comes from the majority it enjoys in the Palestinian national legislation. However, it does not speak for the Palestinian people

That’s why we have these deep differences. Hamas has its own view from all the international alliances and national political programs. If we look at the programs of the PLO, we see that they are secular programs and are not religious or partisan. The move toward Palestinian national reconciliation comes after pressure by Arab countries. As we see, there is an environment now among the Arab countries to set aside their differences. There is a thawing of relations is happening between two moderate nations (Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) and the so-called rejectionist countries (Syria).

This new phase of Arab cooperation is reflected directly or indirectly on the Palestinian issue, which is in dire need of one unified voice. I hope that the national unity government will lift the blockade on Gaza and begin rebuilding.

MAK: Considering the deep divisions between Hamas and Fatah how strong will this government be?

SS: The positive thing about this government is that it’s going to be a transitional government with big responsibilities. The first is the lifting of the blockade and the rebuilding of Gaza. Second, making sure that legislative and presidential elections take place within 10 months or before the end of January 2010. Basically, what we’d have is a general election, which will decide the future of the Palestinian political system, and everyone would have to respect the results, despite the outcome.

MAK: If Hamas joins a national coalition government, will it be implicitly approving or agreeing to all the peace accords the PLO has signed with Israel?

SS: Not necessarily, and that’s because Hamas is a political party and the government is the executive coalition. All the accords that were signed between the Palestinians and Israel, were signed by the PLO and not by one Palestinian faction. And, Hamas is not a member of the PLO.

Hamas has a stronghold on the Gaza Strip.

MAK: If and when the national unity government is created, does this mean the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza?

SS: Yes, if an agreement is reached — and that’s what we hope — this transitional government will be a general unity government, which is part of an agreement that includes five major points. The security issue, election issue, the restructuring of the PLO issue and so on. As a result, this government will be able to spread its influence over the Palestinian territories, meaning Gaza and the West Bank.

MAK: What names are on the table as possible candidates for the prime minister position for the national unity government?

SS: In my opinion, it’s going to be an independent candidate that both Fatah and Hamas will agree to.

MAK: What were the motives behind the resignation the current Palestinian government led by prime minister Salam Fayyad? Was his resignation a result of the talks in Cairo or an internal fight?

SS: It doesn’t matter because this government came after the Hamas coup of June 2006. Then a state of emergency was declared because President Abbas desperately needed someone who could uphold the state of emergency and Fayyad took on this historical role. This government was created with certain goals in mind, and once they were accomplished, there was no more need for it.

MAK: What if a unity government fails? What are the implications of the failure on Palestinians?

SS: We hope and pray to God that when a Palestinian government is created, it does not fail in its mission and succeeds in rebuilding the Palestinian house, because its failure this time will be catastrophic. It will lead to a permanent division between the two territories. And the future of the Palestinian state will forever undecided and all Palestinians will lose.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user flyk3r under a Creative Commons license.

While Mitchell emphasized the necessity of a cease-fire, both Israel and Hamas attacked one other with rockets and bombs. Mitchell plans to meet with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas but does not plan to have direct contact with members of Hamas.

For more on George Mitchell’s mission, Worldfocus speaks with Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.