predicament politically a little better than the average palestinian does because in some ways he is in a similar predicament quite often as a leader of a very divided people. how much the israelis took that to heart is a matter of some speculation. this is not the first time the president has said that settlements is not helpful. this is not the first time we have heard this from the administration. but israelis have tended to ignore, netanyahu has tended to ignore that in the past and my suspicion is he probably will continue to do that. bobby, does this trip, very high profile obviously, both here in the united states and internationally, does this trip raise expectations both in the region and for president obama that the two sides get to the negotiating table? they are very, very far apart at the moment. the president isn t really offering a new plan that brings them together. that said, the power and
st. patrick s day might be over, but it is still time to give to st. baldrick day. it s an organization that fights childhood cancer. great. liz? i m just going to say congratulations on five years of friends of mine who own cork and cork in washington, d.c. wow. okay. my shameless plug is if you like this, there will be plenty more tomorrow. i m hosting again. it is shameless after all. are we coming back? that s it for this edition of t he daily rundown. dhe daily remains in the mideast with the president. he ll be in jordan tomorrow. coming up next, it s chris jansing and company. ur digestive balance in sync? try align. it s the number one ge recommended probiotic that helps maintain digestive balance. stay in the groove with align. need help keeping your digestive balance in sync?
have the credibility and the with hamas and able to negotiate for all palestinian people, you know, does he really want to sit at the table because maybe he can t negotiate a peace or he can t fully negotiate a peace. that said, it does sound like netanyahu wants to give obama this. he knows it s important to president obama to do something like this. and if netanyahu wants president obama to have his back on iran, then he wants to be able to give him something on getting the peace process started. but you heard it, chris. they re still trying to negotiate the terms of the negotiations. and the president is trying to say, hey, to the palestinians, don t make a settlement freeze a precondition. if you do, we re never going to talk. it s remarkable, chuck, politics is never far from the mind. now, speaking of never far from the mind, a little bit more light-hearted, but today is sort of the formal kickoff over here, i know you know it, the formal kickoff over here of a little somethi
hamas. is he someone who can be a credible negotiator if good will prevails and they can get both sides to the table? is abbas someone who has the sort of political power to negotiate on behalf of all palestinians or not? by himself he does not. i think he is not the leader of gaza. this is quite clear. who is, is a different question. his people are quite divided on what they feel about him. he is very much at the moment a sort of compromise candidate. he can come to the negotiating table if he has buy-in from a lot of other people behind him and that has been lacking. people like barguti who is still in prison. people like hamas. unless they buy into a peace plan, he does not have the charisma or credibility to pull that off. bobby ghosh, thanks for the
prestige of the american president is not something to be sneered at. to the extent that he can nudge both sides to get even a little closer to the negotiating table, that might help. there s also excellent news just this morning boy happy coincidence from turkey where a conflict between the turks and the kurds that has raged for decades and cost 40,000 lives now looks like there s a break-through and peace is possible. that is something that s happening right in their neighborhood. if the president can get the palestinians and israelis to look at that and say, look, this is possible. it is possible that these long intractable conflicts between communities can actually be resolved if people on both sides, leaders on both sides rise above petty politics. perhaps some good can be done from that. bobby, you mentioned, i know time has written about mahmoud abbas sort of difficult status politically between himself and