A few hours ago Secretary of State Clinton travelled to Egypt in order to help coax the Israelis and Palestinians to renew, continue talks that have been stalled for a few months. The Secretary of State will hold bilatelar meetings with the two sides involved and the Jordanians. A precondition of the resumption of talks has been the moratorium on settlement activity. Such a moratorium will likely be extended, because at this juncture Prime Minister Netanyahu can not be seen as the unwilling party.
Most of the time such announcements by the press constitute white noise. No one seems to really believe that a settlement will come about this year or the next. The state of affairs seems to be good for at least the principal players in the Middle East. For far too long both sides have been using the conflict as an excuse to forego basic human services and examine what needs to be done inside their territories in order to provide their citizens opportunity and peace.