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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2009
World in View
Middle East cauldron
Efforts of the Obama administration to move the Israeli-Palestinian morass off of dead center have so far been for naught. While the U.S. signaled its intent to pressure the government to stop Israeli settlement construction on the West Bank, the "new" administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quickly signaled that he had no intention of doing so.
At the same time, on the Palestinian side the confrontation between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority and Hamas' control of the Gaza continues, leaving a completely fragmented Palestinian movement. Gaza continues in extreme misery with Israel allowing the barest minimum of goods to arrive. Between Israeli intransigence and the Palestinian internal conflict, Abbas has now indicated he will not run again to be head of the Palestinian Authority, thereby threatening the continuing existence of the Palestinian Authority. Any serious negotiations for a two-state solution seems far off.
--E.W.
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