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US envoy, Netanyahu have 1st meeting on peace
Aron Heller The Associated Press
Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: News
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Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu thinks negotiations on Palestinian statehood are pointless. But envoy George Mitchell wants Israel to resume negotiations to establish a Palestinian state.
This is Mitchell's second Mideast visit since President Barack Obama took office last month. Hillary Rodham Clinton will make her first trip to the region next week as the new U.S. secretary of state.
The attention follows Obama's promise to make Mideast peace a priority.
Thursday's meeting was "positive and productive," Netanyahu said, and the two still "have a lot to talk about." Mitchell made no statement. He promised a vigorous push for Israeli-Palestinian peace on his first visit but offered no public glimpse into how the administration planned to do it. Mitchell was not expected to do so this time, either, a U.S. official said.
Mitchell's visit comes amid ongoing talks on the region's future - on a Gaza cease-fire, Gaza reconstruction and Palestinian reconciliation.
Egyptian officials have been trying to mediate a long-term truce between Israel and the Islamic militant Hamas group that rules Gaza, to replace a fragile cease-fire that ended Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza last month.
The two rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and the Western-backed West Bank government, are meeting this week for Egyptian-mediated talks on reconciliation.
And dozens of countries will meet Monday in Egypt for a donors' conference to raise money for rebuilding Gaza after the Israeli offensive.
One of Mitchell's immediate goals is to shore up the Gaza cease-fire, which continues to be shaken by low-level violence.
On Thursday, militants fired two rockets at southern Israel and Israel later sent aircraft to raid southern Gaza. Hamas said the aircraft targeted five smuggling tunnels. Palestinian medical officials said three people were wounded, one critically. No one was injured in the rocket attacks.
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