Peace Process Falters as US Rethinks Mideast Strategy

(Dec. 8) -- The U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace process, at an impasse for months, is now officially broken, with the prospect for a substantive revival any time soon looking increasingly unlikely.

And however much the Obama administration today continued to promote hope for future talks, officials' frustration was palpable -- as was a sense that the U.S. blames Israel's unwillingness to renew a freeze on construction of settlements in the West Bank.

"Our position on settlements has not and will not change," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements, and we will continue to express that position."

Administration officials said late Tuesday they were abandoning efforts to persuade the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order a new construction freeze in the Palestinian territories after struggling since late September to force, cajole and even buy greater Israeli cooperation. That included an offer to Israel of 20 advanced stealth F-35 fighter jets, which is no longer under discussion.

"We're simply acknowledging that after intensive effort, you know, the moratorium was not the best basis to move forward, and in essence we're shifting gears," Crowley said.

The latest round of peace talks began in early September amid urgent, impassioned promises of good-faith participation from Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, and President Barack Obama.

But just weeks later, Netanyahu allowed a 10-month moratorium on new West Bank construction to expire, and his mostly hard-wing coalition government has made little public effort to address the issue.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, won't return to the negotiating table without such a freeze on construction they view as de facto curtailing of a future Palestinian state in the West Bank. They now also insist that Israel agree to break no new ground for buildings in east Jerusalem, which they hope to make their future capital.

The Obama administration's decision is a blow not just to the prospect of a construction freeze but to what was supposed to be a yearlong process in which the opening months were all about building up confidence and trust on both sides.

"There is no doubt that there is a crisis, a difficult crisis," Abbas said today at a news conference in Greece.

Abbas and other Palestinian leaders lately have increasingly talked about bypassing the Israelis and seeking United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that might change little on the ground and would be unlikely to succeed without U.S. support, but one that would considerably complicate all Middle East diplomacy that follows.

Argentina this week joined Brazil and Uruguay in voicing support for recognition of a Palestinian state, increasing pressure on Israel and adding to the diplomatic mess the Obama administration would face if forced to fight the effort at the U.N.

Netanyahu's government has expressed a willingness to try other negotiating routes

"We should wait a bit more, maybe another few weeks," Ron Dermer, an aide to Netanyahu, said today on Israeli Army Radio. "With American coordination, we will have a new course."

But the same territorial issues that defeated so many previous rounds of U.S.-sponsored diplomacy won't go away.

Crowley said Israeli and Palestinian officials will meet with U.S. counterparts in Washington in the coming days, and that Obama's top Mideast envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, would return to the region next week in a bid to make progress separately with each side.

And Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to give a speech in Washington on Friday describing the administration's new Mideast plan.

But Crowley declined to discuss what she will say or any detail of what the U.S. will try next.