but first up the chances of peace in the middle east after the latest round of speeches by prime minister netanyahu and president obama. i ll be joined by tom friedman of the new york times who is just back from the middle east. now, here s my take for this week. we ve just gone through an arcane debate about whether barack obama said anything new when he called for an israeli/palestinian settlement based on 1967 borders with mutually agreed upon land swaps. in fact, that has been the working assumption of all negotiating parties, america, israel and the palestinian authority, for over 20 years. it is what the camp david talks of 2000 were based on. it s what elmerit s talks were based on. the real shift in u.s. policy was president obama publicly condemning the palestinian strategy to seek recognition as a state from the u.n. general assembly in september. instead of thanking obama for this, prime minister netanyahu chose to stage, in the words of the former israeli di
but first up the chances of peace in the middle east after the latest round of speeches by prime minister netanyahu and president obama. i ll be joined by tom friedman of the new york times who is just back from the middle east. now, here s my take for this week. we ve just gone through an arcane debate about whether barack obama said anything new when he called for an israeli/palestinian settlement based on 1967 borders with mutually agreed upon land swaps. in fact, that has been the working assumption of all negotiating parties, america, israel and the palestinian authority, for over 20 years. it is what the camp david talks of 2000 were based on, it s what elmert s talks were based on. the real shift in u.s. policy was president obama publicly condemning the palestinian strategy to seek recognition as a state from the u.n. general assembly in september. instead of thanking obama for this, prime minister netanyahu chose to stage, in the words of the former israeli dip
mome you can recall? we were getting real-time updates of the situation on the ground and we were in pretty constant contact with others in the inner agency and getting updates off the ground. i don t know exactly what people were looking at at that moment but the president was obviously leading the team and throughout the course of the day on sunday, they worked through a lot of difficult issues with the president in the chair driving that effort but it s also true, quite frankly, over the course of the last seven, eight, nine months since this intelligence came to light late last summer, wolf. so what strikes me about the picture more than anything is that it speaks to the team work that was emblematic, from the military and diplomats to make sure that this happened in the successful way that it did. when you said that they were getting information realtime in the white house situation room, what does that mean? were you hearing audio or seeing
it s like one giant root canal operation. it s going to bring extraordinary pain. it s important. and the reality is to go into it without illusions. not giving up on the possibilities of peace. it s certainly possible if everybody in this case the sun, the moon and the stars, the israelis, the palestinians and of course the obama administration is willing to pay the price and that s the real key here. i m not sure they are. let me ask you this. the last seven, eight months there seem to be an intense effort on the obama administration, hillary got directly involved, hopes were raised and it all came to a crashing halt. which begs the question, even if you had a president absolutely dedicated to getting across the finish line, generating a peace treaty, can the united states anymore, do we have the power, the influence in that region to force peace on parties who may not want it? well, in answer to the second question, there s no question we do not. and saying no to america these d
peace between israelis and palestinian. david aaron miller was a negotiator through five administrations and said that the peace process is a lost cause. we asked him about it earlier. take a look. nobody ever lost money betting against peace even in the best circumstances, a giant root canal operation. it s going to bring extraordinary pain. it is important and the reality is without allusions. not giving up on the possibilities of peace. it s certainly possible if everybody in this case the sun, the moon and the stars, the israelis, the palestinians and of course the obama administration is willing to pay the price and that s the real key here, i m not sure they are. the last seven, eight months, there seemed to be an intense effort on the part of the obama administration, a lot of press, hillary got directly involved, hopes were raised and then it all came to a crashing halt which begs the question, even if you had a president absolutelily