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The Obama administration's furious efforts to relaunch stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks this summer are going nowhere, and a looming U.N. confrontation could further set back prospects for a negotiated settlement any time soon.

Despite attempts to get the parties back to the table based on parameters that President Barack Obama outlined in a May speech, U.S. and other officials say neither side appears willing to commit to new discussions.

Senior officials from the international group of Mideast peacemakers — the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia — planned to meet Monday in Washington. The goal is to revive the process by increasing pressure on the two sides to return to talks.

Yet repeated visits to Israel and the West Bank last month by U.S. envoys have produced no tangible results. That's been the case, too, in recent talks in Washington between U.S. officials and their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts.

This past week, the new U.S. special Mideast peace envoy, David Hale, and White House adviser Dennis Ross pressed the chief Palestinian peace negotiator on one of the biggest points of contention, a Palestinian plan to win U.N. recognition as an independent state.

Israel and the U.S. support an eventually independent Palestine but oppose the attempt to establish one without negotiation with the Jewish state.

In a sign of the intractability of the decades-long deadlock, negotiator Saeb Erekat said immediately after Wednesday's meeting that the Palestinians were more determined than ever to win recognition when the U.N. General Assembly meets in September. Erekat said those opposing the Palestinians need to "rethink their position."

The measure probably will pass, providing the Palestinians with increased diplomatic power, even if independence still will need the council's approval. The U.S. would surely veto any such resolution.

One U.S. official privately described the overall atmosphere surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as gloomy. A second termed it depressing. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential meetings.

The deadlock had split the United States and its allies about how to restart the talks. Until last week, the U.S. had resisted European calls for the meeting Monday, believing there was nothing new to discuss, officials said.

The U.S. concluded that it wasn't worth continuing to fight the meeting despite the poor prospects for success, officials said.

Little of substance is expected.

The U.S. and the Europeans want direct Israeli-Palestinian talks to resume before the Palestinians bring their independence case to the United Nations.

The Palestinians have sent officials to lobby governments around the world for support; Israel is engaged in a determined counter-effort.

The Palestinians might be persuaded to withdraw the draft at the last minute. But with the peace process essentially frozen for the past two years, Washington has struggled to offer an alternative path.

Still, it's anyone's guess when the Israelis and Palestinians might sit down together again, let alone hash out questions ranging from borders to security arrangements.

The Israelis are still fuming over Obama's speech May 19. The president said new negotiations should use territorial boundaries that existed before the 1967 Mideast war as a starting point, with the sides swapping some territory to account for population shifts and security concerns.

By endorsing what had long been a Palestinian goal as a basis for the talks, Obama upset Israel, which has maintained that all boundaries should be subject to negotiation.

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is looking for a concession from the Palestinians, such as an explicit statement that they will recognize Israel as a Jewish state, before entering talks, according to diplomats.

The Palestinians have embraced Obama's speech and suggested they may drop their absolute demand for a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a condition for returning to negotiations. But they have pressed ahead with their drive for U.N. recognition, which could give them new forums to criticize Israel.

Complicating matters is a unity deal between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, and the militant Hamas movement that controls Gaza.

Netanyahu has rejected any talks with a Palestinian government including Hamas, which Israel and the U.S. brand a terrorist organization. Abbas has shown an apparent willingness to delay the formation of a unity government with Hamas, but once it happens it will likely jeopardize the process.

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The involved parties should threaten to cut %100 of funding to Israel and not recognize Palistine as a nation until they come to some viable peace agreement.  Hows that for incentive?

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those peacful protesters.



Several newly arrived foreign activists joined Palestinians in tearing down part of an Israeli fence in the West Bank Monday, local activists said.

Some of the foreigners who took part in the protest were among those who had flown into Israel over the weekend, the local activists said. Organizers of the fly-in, which was to bring some 600 activists to the West Bank, have said the campaign is a peaceful show of solidarity with Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

About 10 of the foreign activists joined about 50 Palestinians in tugging at and tearing down parts of the fence, villagers said.

The Israeli military said there was minor damage to the fence, and the protesters dispersed without military intervention.

Several of the foreign activists said they had arrived in recent days, but they refused to give their names for fear of deportation. Several other foreigners stayed in the village during the demonstration.

The fly-in to Israel was organized as plans fell through to send a flotilla of ships to challenge Israel's sea blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel issued a blacklist to airlines to stop most of the foreigners from boarding planes over the weekend. Israel arrested 130 others on arrival, but scores more were permitted to enter, and a few went to the West Bank to demonstrate.

Israel was deporting all the detained activists, said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad. She said 58 were still being held Monday and would be deported as soon as foreign airlines agreed to take them.

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This ain't ganna help:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14111925

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a lot of times, the israeli government acts extremely over-sensitive to criticism.

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The way I see it, the Palestinians want the US to force Israel to the bargaining table.

Because Hamas is a terrorist organization that refuses to acknowledge Israel's right to exist, because they STILL have a kidnapped IDF soldier, because they are still smuggling arms into Gaza, because they are still bombing Israel from time to time, because they STILL teach antisemitism to their children and are waging a battle against the Israel, and because Israel finally has a leader that isnt afraid to stand up to the US, Israel is never going to do business with Hamass.

Netanyahu has promised to make real concessions to the Palestinians, but they are going to have to make some concessions as well.  They wont and so that's why they want the US and the West to increase pressure on Israel.  

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Don't forget, Hamas is only part of the equation.  Fataw tried for real peace after the split with Hamas and got treated horridly by Israel as well.

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As long as the Palestinians are governed by Hamas, I dont see any chance of them even coming to the table.  They elected Hamas to lead them.  Hamas still has not let the IDF soldier go free after what... or years now?  

Nope.  No chance of the 2 getting together until Hamas is tossed out.   At least, it would surprise me if they did.

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i don' think there's a chance of them sorting out their differences period. democrats and republicans can sort out their differences because we agree that we're all americans, and generally we want america to do well (aside from the kooks). the reason the israelis and palestinians will never sort out their differences is because the palestinians, at the end of the day, don't want israel to be there. they want what they feel to be is their land back. not part of it, but all of it. they aren't interested in a shared peace, and prosperity for both parties, with trading ties and diplomatic ties.