After rough week for peace process, Clinton to give speech on Mideast policy tonight

Secretary Clinton will be giving a speech on Middle East policy at 8 p.m. this evening at the Brookings Institution here in D.C. The speech will be part of the forum on "U.S.-Israeli Relations: Facing Hard Choices," to be put on by the think tank’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

The State Department’s news release states that the fourm "will focus on the critical decisions that American and Israeli leaders will confront in the coming year to move the Israeli-Palestinian peace process forward, as well as deal with Iran’s nuclear challenge."

Sadly, the Middle East peace process is deadlocked, though Clinton met with chief Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molho yesterday to get "a perspective on the Israeli side of how to move forward," according to State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

It’ll be interesting to see what she says after this rough week for the peace process.

Update, Dec. 14, 2010, 4:40 p.m.: The video of Clinton’s speech is below. Overall, it was a lot of the bland same-old, same-old. Clinton used the word "unwavering" twice to describe the United States’ commitment to Israel. She reiterated that the United States "[does] not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity." Nothing new.