US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made perhaps her final visit to Israel in her official capacity yesterday, bringing a message of solidarity to the Jewish state after three-and-a-half years of only stunted progress toward a Palestinian peace deal.
Clinton was also to discuss issues ranging from Egypt’s democratic transition to Iran’s nuclear program during a day of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s president, foreign minister and defense minister. She will also sit down with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as well, before returning to Washington early today. The meetings in Jerusalem culminate a 12-day, nine-country trip that included stops in Europe and Asia.
Her arrival follows a weekend visit by US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is expected to visit Israel soon.
Although yesterday’s agenda is designed to cover the breadth of US-Israeli relations, the lack of action on peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be in the spotlight.
Negotiations have almost been nonexistent for the duration of US President Barack Obama’s term in office. They resumed briefly two years ago, before stumbling over the same set of problems, namely Palestinian demands for a freeze on Jewish settlements in lands they seek for their future state and an Israeli insistence on no preconditions for talks.
Asked in an interview Sunday with WJLA-TV, a Washington station, what he believed he failed at, Obama cited Arab-Israeli peace efforts.
“I have not been able to move the peace process forward in the Middle East the way I wanted,” he said. “It’s something we focused on very early, but the truth of the matter is that the parties, they’ve got to want it as well.”
Clinton has not visited Israel since September 2010. With little to show for US efforts on a two-state peace agreement and a hectic schedule before she steps down as secretary of state next year, it is unlikely she will return. Clinton has said she would leave the post even if Obama wins a second term.
The flurry of visits by top US officials to Israel could reflect an administration attempt to shore up Obama’s support among Jewish voters as the election nears. The president has pushed back forcefully against Republican claims that he is weak in defending Israel’s security, and Republican US presidential candidate Mitt Romney is planning to visit Israel later this month.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion