For the last seven months, the Obama administration has labored in vain to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians together, pushing for a loose quid pro quo under which Israel would freeze construction of Jewish settlements while its Arab neighbors undertook diplomatic steps to bolster Israel’s confidence in its security.
Now, in the latest acknowledgment that its policy has failed, at least for the moment, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun setting the stage for a new phase of Middle East diplomacy, with a more modest goal. She is trying to get the parties talking at any level to avoid a dangerous vacuum until a Plan B emerges.
Mrs. Clinton began sketching out this approach Tuesday in a speech and in meetings with Arab foreign ministers during a conference of Arab and Western nations in this city of pink sandstone buildings. She flew to Cairo later to hold talks with the Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak.
Making it clear that the Israeli government would not agree to President Obama’s call for a complete halt to settlement construction, Mrs. Clinton promoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer as a reasonable compromise that could still form the basis for progress. Mr. Netanyahu has proposed a moratorium on new housing units in the West Bank, but would allow building or finishing about 3,000 more units and would exclude East Jerusalem from any building limits.
“It is not what we want; it is nowhere near enough,” Mrs. Clinton told Al Jazeera. “But I think when you keep your eye on what we want to achieve, it is a better place to be than the alternative. And therefore, I think we should be trying to keep moving the parties.”
It is not clear what contacts between Israelis and Palestinians the administration has in mind, though they would be at a lower level than Mr. Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president. Nor has the shape of an alternative strategy to rekindle peace talks emerged, according to senior officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations were confidential.
In a meeting with Mrs. Clinton in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Mr. Abbas rejected Mr. Netanyahu’s proposal as a “nonstarter,” in the language of his chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
But the United States is not giving up. The administration’s special envoy for the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, met again with Mr. Abbas in Jordan on Monday, and with King Abdullah II. In Marrakesh, Mrs. Clinton tried to convince skeptical Arab foreign ministers of the value of Israel’s proposal.
Administration officials are worried that paralysis in the region is a recipe for instability and violence. “We recognized coming into the region that things have stalled,” said a State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley. “If there’s a vacuum, there are always lots of spoilers looking to take advantage.”
Mrs. Clinton told the Arab ministers that Mr. Netanyahu’s proposal was better than what any previous Israeli government had offered. She took pains to say that the administration was not abandoning its push for a total freeze. But her effusive embrace of Mr. Netanyahu’s offer in Jerusalem over the weekend stirred up a tempest in the Arab world, with diplomats asking whether the United States had buckled.
“President Obama was absolutely clear,” Mrs. Clinton told Al Jazeera. “He wanted a halt to all settlement activity. And perhaps those of us who work with him and for him could have been clearer in communicating that that is his policy, that is what we’re committed to doing.”
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