In his column for the Washington Post, David Ignatius details the comings and goings of the administration and how they're likely to develop a peace plan for the middle east due to Israeli intransigence & Palestinian unrealistic hopes.
Obama developing Mideast peace plan
The plan seems to developed similiarly to the Clinton plan presented in 1993 and 90% of the plan would be developed on what has been agreed upon in the past.
"Everyone knows the basic outlines of a peace deal," said one of the senior officials, citing the agreement that was nearly reached at Camp David in 2000 and in subsequent negotiations. He said that an American plan, if launched, would build upon past progress on such issues as borders, the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. The second senior official said that "90 percent of the map would look the same" as what has been agreed in previous bargaining.
The American peace plan would be linked with the issue of confronting Iran, which is Israel's top priority, explained the second senior official. He described the issues as two halves of a single strategic problem: "We want to get the debate away from settlements and East Jerusalem and take it to a 30,000-feet level that can involve Jordan, Syria and other countries in the region," as well as the Israelis and Palestinians.
"Incrementalism hasn't worked," continued the second official, explaining that the United States cannot allow the Palestinian problem to keep festering -- providing fodder for Iran and other extremists. "As a global power with global responsibilities, we have to do something." He said the plan would "take on the absolute requirements of Israeli security and the requirements of Palestinian sovereignty in a way that makes sense."
Interestingly, the article also details that the idea was developed by General Jones and all of the previous living NSAs that have been meeting secretly at Gen. Jones' behest. Those include, Zbignew Brezinski, Brent Scowcroft, Colin Powell, Sandy Berger and others.
The idea is to involve all of the interagencies that deal with Afghanistan and Iraq and make this more a big issue that would have to involve the political parties as well. The latter worries me a bit, because of the fact that Congress has one position in regards to the mideast peace.
However, this would be a tremendous step forward if it were implemented in this way.