Clinton’s New Year’s Resolution: Mideast Peace

One of Secretary Clinton’s "New Year’s resolutions" is to redouble her efforts at promoting a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Monday, after meeting with the prime minister (above) of Qatar — an Arab country that the United States wants onboard in supporting the peace process — Clinton said:

We’re going to be even more committed this year, and we’re starting this new year with that level of commitment and we’re going to follow through and hopefully we can see this as a positive year in this long process."

On Friday, Clinton and U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell will meet with the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt, two countries crucial to the peace process because they’re Israel’s only Arab neighbors who fully recognize the country. On Sunday, Mitchell will travel to Europe to meet with the "quartet" attempting to facilitate Mideast peace — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia — and will later this month go to Israel and the Palestinian territories with letters of "guarantees" stating the United States’ stance.

This is quite an ambitious New Year’s resolution for Clinton, and success depends not just on Clinton’s hard work, but on the cooperation of many disparate parties with conflicting interests. Perhaps that’s why Clinton had a "bilateral meeting" last month at the North Pole with a "well-known international figure" and sung a wish list that included "Middle East negotiations."