re: #361 Kenneth

Yes. Obama has invited Abbas, Mubarak and Netanyahu to Washington for a steaming bowlful of Hope’n’Change.

Barack Obama begins push for Middle East peace

…Obama appears to have come round to the view of advisers that the US will effectively have to impose much of any deal on Israel and the Palestinians rather than wait for one to emerge from the two sides. He said yesterday: “I agree that we can’t talk forever, that at some point steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming months.

“My hope would be that over the next several months, that you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides. I don’t want to get into the details of what those gestures might be, but I think that the parties in the region probably have a pretty good recognition of what intermediate steps could be taken as confidence-building measures.”

guardian.co.uk