Mideast talks: tenuous positions, interim solutions

Mideast talks: tenuous positions, interim solutions

Michael Bell
Published Friday, Aug. 02, 2013 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/mideast-talks-tenuous-positions-interim-solutions/article13560521/

The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations wouldn’t be taking place without intense U.S. pressure. The details of that pressure haven’t been fully clear, but it was almost certainly considerable – for example, it reportedly included cutting off aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it participated.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is playing his cards close to his chest and those in the know are few. He has enlisted Martin Indyk, hitherto head of the foreign-policy program at the Brookings Institution, and Jonathan Schwartz, from the State Department’s legal bureau, for his very small team. Both are eminently well qualified. With Mr. Kerry in the lead, they will act as “facilitators.”