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east coast business day we hear the announcements of these sections. the other piece of interesting news is the president s summary of the mideast talks. make sure people know this has been a big john kerry effort. john kerry forced this situation, forced these abbas and netanyahu to the table. go ahead and get caught trying. looking for excuses for the talks not to happen or for the talks to collapse. here we are. they have now officially collapse. the president almost admitting, yes, everybody needs to take a pause and go to their corners. when you think about the history, at least in the obama years of what he wanted to do with engagement in the middle east and engagement with the the peace talks, all those things,
bombs, at one time at a bus carrying children. elderly women, security agents, all all kinds of things. and benjamin netanyahu has a later to his people saying this is an incredibly difficult decision for him to do and he knows it wouldn t be politically popular. why was it necessary at this phase to do that or make that promise? well, i would speculate that prime minister netanyahu thinks the talks will collapse and his judgment is that there s less of a political cost for him to bear the political opposition he faces in israel because of this prisoner release, for example, than it is to oppose the obama administration s clear priority to get these talks started. you say, how he does judge that. and i think it s because he is looking at netanyahu is looking at a bigger picture and that bigger picture is the iranian nuclear weapons program. and the very hard decision that israel will have to make, i this i, much sooner rather than
i m good. how is this time going to be different? i don t think it will be different. i think that both the government of israel and the palestinians are here largely because of the pressure of the obama administration. and while these talks may drag out, not here in washington, but back in the region for some time, because of the continuance of that pressure, there s no sign that parties are any closer on substance and in fact, if anything, the authority on the palestinian side is even less legitimate and less able to deliver on any promises it can make that was three years ago. so in substantive terms, i don t think these talks are likely to go anywhere. all right, we are starting with the word there will be a release of palestinian prisoners, a number of them. we are told it will be in phases. it ll be staggered. had israelis will release them but there are counts it will incloud people who threw fire
talks will start after dinner hoor at the state department dinner this evening, marking the end of the holy ramadan. u.s. ambassador to israel is chief u.s. negotiators for the talks. they were near agreement in 2000, kerry says he knows what works and what doesn t, though he may know more about the latter. i think reasonable compromises has to be a keystone of all of this effort. i know negotiations will be tough. but i also know that the consequences of not trying could be worse. as a so-called goodwill gesture to clear the way for talks, israel agreed to release a hundred palestinian prisoners convicted of killings in the 1980s and 90s. israeli officials br divided over the move. president netanyahu says it is good for the country.