Netanyahu to Mitchell On Building Freeze In Jewish Communities - No Dice

As Mr. Burns would say, "Excellent!":

Israel is giving U.S. special envoy George Mitchell no signs it will compromise on its policy of expanding settlements in the West Bank. Mitchell - who has been pressing Washington's demand for a settlement freeze - will meet again with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after talks Tuesday made no apparent progress.


Mitchell indicated he wants to reach an agreement with the Israelis to halt settlement construction during this visit, which started on Saturday.

"We hope to bring this phase of our discussion to an early conclusion and to move forward in our common search for comprehensive peace in the region," said Mitchell.{..}

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister's office, told VOA the two-hour conversation was - in his words - good, but there were no signs of a breakthrough.

"We're trying to achieve a package that will allow the restarting of the peace talks. A package where both Israel and the Palestinians, and the Arab side take steps that will allow restarting political talks between Israel and the Arab states, [and] Israel and the Palestinians. That's the goal. And we're hopeful that it's possible to do so," Regev said

Note what I emphasized..Mitchell and Netanyhu are meeting tomorrow - an unscheduled meeting, which gives you a clue how today's went - but I have a feeling the Israelis are finished with one way strategic concessions in exchange for a bunch of empty promises.

I certainly can't see what they would gain by it in any event.

Part of that has to do with the way Obama and Hillary Clinton approached this whole thing in the first place, bowing down to the Arab world and reneging on the agreement the Israelis made with Obama's predecessor President Bush that was the entire basis for Israel signing on to the Roadmap.

With nations as well as with individuals, once you prove you can't be trusted, it's a tough reputation to get rid of.