Barack Obama on the brink of deal for Middle East peace talks

The Guardian Online has announced that the US, Israel, and The Palestinians are on the verge of a major announcement of a resumption of middle east peace talks. France and Russia are offering to host middle east peace conferences regarding these talks. The announcement with President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is tentatively scheduled for the meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York, or the next day or two during a summit of the G-20 in Pittsburgh.

Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco are all on board so far. Saudi Arabia is said not to be on board, but does not seem to be stopping other Arab States from joining, and is thought to maybe jump on board in the end.

Read the whole story here.

The article went on to say that some were hopeful of a complete middle east peace deal in two years, others thought that was too optimistic. The idea of middle east peace sounds great and I hope and pray it will be achieved. I'm happy our envoy George Mitchell is involved and I think his involvement will add to the possibility of success. The rough terms seem to be that Israel has agreed to a partial stop in building settlements on the west bank in exchange for the US taking a much harsher stance towards Iran and their nuclear ambitions.

Before this announcement maybe I was naive but I was hoping for some kind of improved relations with Iran. In general I think many people in Iran want and deserve a relationship with us. Most of the leaders and religious wackos don't want and don't deserve a relationship with us. So what are we to do? Because of Israel's insistence that we and other countries push for very tough sanctions on Iran with the purpose of crippling their economy, we are in a tough bind. I doubt Russia and France will be two of those countries that stand with us in supporting the new tough sanctions.

I don't know that Israel is giving up all that much for 1.) the promise of peace with the Palestinians and 2.) US aggression against Iran as their proxy. Israel agrees to a partial stop to building in the west bank. Maybe I'm wrong, but is that enough?

This may work out for the US because we may have had to do something about Iran's nuclear threat in the future but I just don't like the sounding of this. Here's to peace.