As the unusual confluence of the Jewish new year, Ramadan and September 11th has come and gone, I’ve been thinking a lot about the direct talks being pursued right now by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But this post is not about the talks’ core issues, as they’re called, or about the fact that the talks themselves are happening.
I want to focus on Secretary Clinton and the skills and talents she is using, will need and may possess that can help — or hinder — efforts to end violence and gain a permanent peace, whatever that ends up looking like, between the Israelis and Palestinians.
At least one article is calling the current negotiations a “second chance” for Clinton, after her husband Bill’s efforts to forge a lasting peace agreement in the 1990s failed. Aaron David Miller, who advised numerous U.S. secretaries of states in the past and worked on peace process policy, seems to indicate that Clinton’s skill set is very well-suited to getting the job done. From CNN:
[Miller says that] … Hillary Clinton arguably has at least some of the qualities that America’s top diplomat would need to help shepherd successful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
To read the rest, please visit the full entry at, “Hillary Clinton May Succeed At Building Mideast Peace.”