WASHINGTON - The White House announced Sunday that President Barack Obama would be meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu during the Israeli prime minister's trip to Washington to address Jewish groups, ending days of uncertainty.

Netanyahu was to arrive in the U.S. capital Sunday night for a speaking engagement at the three-day 2009 General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America. He will meet with Obama on Monday evening.

U.S.-Israeli relations have been strained since Netanyahu rejected Obama's demand that the Israeli government stop building or expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians say Israel has deeply encroached into land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Not long after taking office, Obama announced his determination to facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians and said an end to settlements was a necessary condition for a resumption of negotiations.

Netanyahu has rejected that demand, but last week visiting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton floated an Israeli proposal that would restrain - but not stop - more West Bank housing. She played it as a major conciliatory move from the Israelis.

Palestinian and Arab diplomats reacted with outrage, and Clinton was forced to backpedal. Arab officials questioned whether the U.S. had tilted toward Israel, abandoning the American position that continued Israel settlements were illegitimate and must end.

Clinton's comments may have reflected a realization within the Obama administration that the conservative Netanyahu would not accept a full-on settlement freeze and that a partial halt might be the most likely, if lesser option. Her appeal seemed designed to make the Israeli position more palatable to the Palestinians and Arab states.

It had the opposite effect, forcing Clinton to extend her overseas journey by a day as she rushed to Egypt in a bid to undo the damage with President Hosni Mubarak, who has played a major role in the peace process.

By STEVEN R. HURST, The Associated Press, November 8, 2009

BERLIN - -- Germany's capital warmed up Sunday for the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall with celebrations throughout the city, as crowds gathered to relive the ecstatic scenes that heralded the demise of European communism.

Leaders from across the continent were due in the German capital to join around 100,000 people Monday at the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of national unity since the peaceful revolution that tore down the wall in 1989.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday used the anniversary as a rallying cry for a new U.S.-European push to free those oppressed by religious extremism.

"Our history did not end the night the wall came down," Clinton told current and former European and U.S. officials in a keynote speech hosted by the Atlantic Alliance. "It began anew."

Clinton said German Chancellor Angela Merkel's scheduled walk Monday through the heart of once-divided Berlin is a moment that "should be a call to action, not just a commemoration of past actions."

"We need to form an even stronger partnership to bring down the walls of the 21st century and to confront those who hide behind them: the suicide bombers, those who murder and maim girls whose only wish is to go to school," Clinton said.

Merkel, who will host leaders including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, recalled that the fall of the wall Nov. 9, 1989, came as an utter surprise.

Germans were out in force along the former route of the barrier, inspecting 1,000 giant dominoes that will be toppled as part of Monday's ceremony.

Mayor Klaus Wowereit said the project, in which children were among those to decorate the foam tiles, had helped underline the day's importance for those too young to remember it.





Agence France-Presse, November 9, 2009

BERLIN - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton congratulated Germans on the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at a meeting Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"I am delighted to be here in Berlin, the city that meant so much, not only to the German people, but to the European and the American people and the world," Clinton said at the Chancellory.

"I congratulate the chancellor, not only on the very well deserved occasion here, but on the work that she and her government are doing here. It is an honor to be representing the United States."

Twenty years after the collapse of the wall that divided East and West Berlin, Clinton said Sunday at an earlier event, the hard work that went into ending the Cold War must be channeled to meet fresh challenges, including the fights against extremism and climate change.

As the Obama administration looks to often reluctant European allies to bolster their NATO forces in Afghanistan, Clinton said Monday's commemoration of Nov. 9, 1989, the night "when history pierced the concrete and concertina wire," must look forward and not back.

"Our history did not end the night the wall came down, it began anew," she told a group of U.S. and European dignitaries while accepting a Freedom Award on behalf of the American people from The Atlantic Council, a group that promotes trans-Atlantic ties.

The moment the festivities begin "should be a call to action, not just a commemoration of past actions," Clinton said. "That call should spur us to continue our cooperation and look for new ways that we can meet the challenges that freedom faces now."

"We owe it to ourselves and to those who yearn for the same freedoms that are enjoyed and even taken for granted in Berlin today," she said.

Clinton praised U.S.-European collaboration on ending the world financial crisis as well as steps to cooperate on global warming. She also hailed NATO security operations, from Afghanistan to fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia.

But she said the spirit of the Berlin Wall's destruction - the symbolic end to the Cold War - had to be reinforced.

"We need to form an even stronger partnership to bring down the walls of the 21st century and to confront those who hide behind them: suicide bombers, those who murder and maim girls whose only wish is to go to school, leaders who chose their own fortune over the fortune of their people."

Other speakers at The Atlantic Council event on Sunday were more blunt.

Former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, who served under Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush, lamented that trans-Atlantic cooperation and understanding had fallen off in the two decades since the Berlin Wall fell.

By MATTHEW LEE, The Associated Press, November 9, 2009

BERLIN - The United States and Germany are stepping up pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to implement major reforms and crack down on rampant corruption.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Monday that international assistance to Afghanistan depends on Karzai improving the quality of his government and delivering needed services to the Afghan people.

After talks in the German capital, Clinton and Westerwelle also renewed warnings to Iran that unless it comes clean on its suspect nuclear program, it faces the prospect of additional sanctions.

By MATTHEW LEE, The Associated Press, November 9, 2009

BERLIN - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is again calling on Iran to release three Americans as a senior Iranian prosecutor said they have been accused of espionage.

Clinton said Monday the U.S. believes "strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever."

The three Americans were arrested July 31 after straying over the Iranian border from northern Iraq. The U.S. government and their families say there were on a hiking vacation and crossed accidentally.

Clinton said the U.S. would continue to make that case through the Swiss channels who represent U.S. interests in Tehran. She spoke at a news conference in Berlin, where she is marking the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

By MATTHEW LEE, The Associated Press, November 9, 2009

NEW YORK - The USS New York, built with steel from the rubble of the World Trade Center, was put into service Saturday both as a symbol of healing and strength.

"No matter how many times you attack us, we always come back," Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said at the amphibious assault ship's commissioning. "America always comes back. That's what this ship represents."

He spoke on a Manhattan pier where hundreds of Navy officers and sailors joined first responders and families of Sept. 11 victims for the ceremony.

"I hereby place the USS New York in commission," Mabus announced.

And with a long drum roll, the ship's crew was sent on its first watch, obeying the order, as traditionally worded: "Man our ship and bring her to life!"

From atop the vessel, decked in red, white and blue bunting, black smoke rose into the chilly fall morning to signal that the USS New York was powered up. A loud cheer accompanied a flyover by Navy planes.

The 7 1/2 tons of steel debris from ground zero had been melted down to form the bow of the USS New York as "a symbol of our unshakable resolve; this is a city built of steel," said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, representing the Obama administration.

Clinton was a U.S. senator from New York before she became the nation's top diplomat.

She noted that many of New York's iconic buildings were forged from steel, from the Statue of Liberty to the Chrysler building.

"But the strongest steel of New York has always been in the spines of its people," Clinton said, calling New Yorkers "strivers and seekers, immigrants from every country, speakers of every language."

The USS New York's new skipper, Cmdr. Curtis Jones, is a native New Yorker.

The ceremony had started with a moment of silence for those who died in the 9/11 attacks.

The $1 billion vessel was built near New Orleans by workers who survived Hurricane Katrina.

"They had to rebuild their lives and their homes at the same time as they built the ship," said Irwin F. Edenzon, general manager for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding-Gulf Coast, which built the USS New York.

By VERENA DOBNIK, The Associated Press, November 7, 2009

WASHINGTON - Nuclear impasses with Iran and North Korea are the dominant issues for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her trip to Europe and Asia, which begins with a stopover in Germany to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall.

Developments in both stalemates are expected in the coming days with international patience running out over Iran's refusal to come clean about its suspected nuclear program and North Korea's refusal to return to stalled disarmament talks.

As Clinton prepared to depart early Sunday for Berlin, U.S. officials said they anticipated that the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog soon would give up hope that Iran would accept a confidence-building deal under which it would ship uranium abroad for further enrichment. That would set the stage for consideration of new U.N. Security Council penalties against Tehran.

In addition, the officials said the U.S. is nearing an announcement that it will send a special envoy to North Korea in a bid to get the North to resume the negotiations, known as the six-party talks. The envoy, Stephen Bosworth, has been invited by the North Koreans, but the Obama administration has not yet accepted.

The centerpiece of Clinton's two days in Berlin will be celebrations marking the anniversary of the Nov. 9, 1989, opening of the wall, the symbolic end of the Cold War. But behind the scenes, in meetings with German and other visiting foreign officials, the Iran question looms.

The administration is seeking support for fresh penalties against Iran. In particular, the U.S. is hoping for help from Russia, which along with China, has in the past resisted and is giving mixed signals about whether it will back them if the uranium transfer proposal is rejected.

Clinton will be at events with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, all of whose countries are involved in the Iran talks. U.S. officials said Iran will be a prime topic of conversation.

"This is a pivotal moment for Iran, and we urge Iran to accept the agreement as proposed," Clinton told reporters in Washington last week after meeting with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "We will not alter it and we will not wait forever."

The proposal would see Iran send 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium - around 70 percent of its stockpile - for reprocessing in Russia in one batch by the end of the year as a way to ease concerns that the material would be used for a bomb - something Iran denies.

France would then convert the uranium into fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Fuel rods cannot be further enriched into weapons-grade material.

Western officials say Iran agreed to the deal in principle, but there have been recent conflicting signals about it and senior Iranian lawmakers are demanding that the government reject it. The International Atomic Energy Agency is attempting to persuade Iran to accept the deal; Clinton and others say time is running out.

"Our patience is not unlimited," she said.

From Berlin, Clinton goes to Singapore, where she will meet Wednesday with Asia-Pacific foreign ministers for talks that will center on North Korea.

Jeffrey Bader, a senior Asia adviser to Obama said Friday that the United States is prepared to send Bosworth to North Korea for direct talks, but only if the North understands that such contact must set the stage for the scrapping of its nuclear program.

Bader said no decision has yet been made about when or how that trip would happen.

But two other U.S. officials said Saturday that an announcement may be imminent, possibly ahead of or during President Barack Obama's Asia trip, which begins Wednesday and will include stops in Japan, China and South Korea - all key players in the six-party talks.

North Korea said last week it had reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and extracted enough plutonium to bolster its atomic stockpile, raising the stakes in an apparent effort to push the U.S. into direct negotiations.

The North pulled out of the six-party talks in April in protest at international criticism of a long-range rocket launch. It then conducted its second-ever nuclear test in May and a series of ballistic missile tests.

After her meetings in Singapore, Clinton will make a brief stop in the Philippines on Thursday to show U.S. solidarity with the nation as it recovers from a series of devastating typhoons. Clinton then returns to Singapore to join Obama for the rest of his Asia trip.

By MATTHEW LEE, The Associated Press, November 7, 2009

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, warned on Thursday that he would not seek re-election, the latest sign that the Obama administration's drive to broker a Middle East peace accord, one of President Obama's key foreign policy goals, has fallen into disarray.

Mr. Abbas, 74, has threatened to step aside before, but coming immediately after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit to the region aimed at reviving a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, his announcement laid bare the deepening tensions over the administration's failure to extract an Israeli settlement freeze or any concessions from Arab leaders.

Mrs. Clinton's visit, which she characterized as a success, sowed anger and confusion among Palestinians and other Arabs after she praised as "unprecedented" the offer by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to slow down, but not stop, construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

In a televised speech from his office in Ramallah, Mr. Abbas, who replaced Yasir Arafat five years ago as president of the Palestinian Authority, said, "I have told my brethren in the P.L.O. that I have no desire to run in the forthcoming election," referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

It was not clear whether Mr. Abbas, considered a moderate, pro-Western leader, was determined to quit, although he said his decision was final. He may stay in his post regardless, because it is far from certain that elections he has called for January will be held then and there are few alternatives to him as leader.

What seems clear is that high-level Israeli-Palestinian talks will not resume any time soon, despite Mr. Obama's pledge in September to redouble American efforts to get the process back on track. A top aide to Mr. Abbas said a large part of his "despondency and frustration" was because of Mr. Obama's unrealized promises to the region. Without a stop to Jewish settlements, he said, Islamist rivals in Hamas could triumph, and violence could break out.

"There was high expectation when he arrived on the scene," said the aide, Nabil Shaath, who leads the Fatah party's foreign affairs department, speaking of Mr. Obama's pledge to be a peacemaker. "Now there is a total retreat, which has destroyed trust instead of building trust."

American officials said that they had narrowed gaps since Mr. Obama took office, and insisted that they would continue to push Israel for a freeze to settlement construction. They are also plotting more modest steps, including lower-level contacts between Israelis and Palestinians, which they hope will stabilize the situation while they try to figure out a Plan B.

"We have tremendous respect for President Abbas and the leadership he has offered the Palestinian people for decades," Mrs. Clinton said Thursday. She said that he talked about his future when they met on Saturday, and that she would continue to work with him, whatever his title.

Mrs. Clinton, administration officials said, tried to dissuade Mr. Abbas from making the announcement. She also urged him to return to the bargaining table with Israel, based on Mr. Netanyahu's offer to limit settlement construction to 3,000 additional housing units - an offer he rejected.

"This is not to bargain or maneuver," Mr. Abbas said of his decision not to run. Still, some aides saw it as a gamble to persuade Mr. Obama to announce a full peace plan aimed at ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and creating a Palestinian state.

That is unlikely to happen soon, officials said, given the president's preoccupation with Afghanistan and health care legislation. But the United States is engaged in increasingly urgent diplomacy to bring the two sides together without Mr. Obama's personal intervention.

On her way home on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton made an unexpected detour to Cairo to meet with Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, to press him to use his influence with the Palestinians.

There may also be further negotiation between the United States and Israel before a visit by Mr. Netanyahu to Washington next week to address the Jewish Federations of North America. Mr. Obama is also speaking to the group; at the moment, the White House said there were no plans for the two to meet.

Some Middle East analysts said they were puzzled that the administration did not have a backup plan for keeping the process on track in the event that Israel balked at a full freeze.

"Our posture with Israel has weakened, our hope to strengthen the Palestinians has fallen back, and our credibility in the Arab world has been damaged," said Robert Malley, a peace negotiator during the Clinton administration. "We are victims of events rather than masters of events."

Among those disruptions is the recent United Nations report criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza last winter. The United Nations General Assembly voted Thursday to endorse that report, and the administration, backed by a House resolution, does not want it sent to the Security Council.

The report alleges possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas in the fighting, which killed at least 1,200 people, nearly all Palestinian. If the report gets bottled up, said Mr. Shaath, the Abbas aide, "It really is like telling the Palestinians to go back to violence."

Mr. Abbas called Palestinian elections for January but few people expect them to take place then, if at all, because they require reconciliation between Mr. Abbas's Fatah and Hamas, which rules in Gaza. Hamas said it would bar voting in Gaza without reconciliation.

The less Mr. Abbas can show that he has gotten from Israel and the United States, the likelier it is that Palestinian voters will turn to Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel and enjoys support from Iran.

For all the frustration that the Palestinians and others have over current Israeli policies, Israel faces a deeply divided Palestinian leadership incapable of agreeing to any deal just now.

The Palestinians say they will not start negotiations fresh but want to renew them from where they left off with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He apparently offered more than 90 percent of the West Bank and some form of international or shared rule over Jerusalem.

Mr. Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel wants to retain much more land for security purposes, and that Jerusalem is off the table. Speaking of Mr. Abbas, Qaddoura Fares, another Fatah leader, said on Israel Radio, "I think he's reached the conclusion that he's reached a dead end."

In his speech, Mr. Abbas said, "Peace is more important than any political achievement or any government party or coalition if the results of that government push the region toward disaster or the unknown." But he added, "We were surprised by the United States' closing its eyes to the Israeli position."

By Ethan Bronner and Mark Landler, The New York Times, November 5, 2009

CAIRO, Nov. 4 -- After four days of Arab criticism over her efforts to break the impasse in the Mideast peace process, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton enjoyed a respite here Wednesday, as her Egyptian counterpart agreed it was time to "focus on the endgame" of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit made clear he did not share Clinton's positive interpretation of Israel's offer of a partial moratorium on West Bank settlements, which just three days ago he described as "not reasonable or acceptable" as the basis for the Palestinians to return to the bargaining table.

"We feel that Israel is hindering the process . . . [and] putting on conditions in order to continue settlement activities, even if limited," Gheit said. He spoke at a news conference with Clinton after she met with President Hosni Mubarak.

But in the city where President Obama last summer delivered his much-praised outreach speech to the Islamic world, the Egyptians at least appeared disinclined to publicly criticize his secretary of state. While not directly endorsing Clinton's outline for new negotiations, Gheit said he agreed that "we should not waste time."

Clinton attributed the apparent softening in Egypt's position as a response to her personal diplomacy, conducted over visits to four capitals in the region over the past five days. "I thought it was a very productive meeting," she told reporters traveling with her after the news conference, adding that it "shows the value of consultation and listening and sharing ideas and hearing the other side and putting forward your views and explaining."

Aides praised what they called Clinton's willingness to bring difficult issues out into the open and not to let the quest for perfection shut the door to incremental progress. In Pakistan, where she spent the first three days of her week-long trip, Clinton listened for many hours to journalists, students and others who publicly lambasted the administration for everything from what they called its tilt toward India to its missile attacks against insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistani territory. In response, she offered patient explanations and reminders that the administration had its own problems with some of Pakistan's policies.

Since she began a plunge into the peace process over the weekend -- with hastily scheduled stops to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on her way to a conference of Western and Arab leaders in Morocco -- Clinton has again been listening and explaining. Palestinian and Arab leaders reacted sharply to her suggestion to Abbas that he use what she called an "unprecedented" Israeli offer -- to suspend construction in the occupied West Bank except for East Jerusalem for a period of nine to 12 months, not counting nearly 3,000 previously planned units -- as a spur and starting point for the resumption of high-level talks.

To many in the region, Clinton appeared to be backtracking on the administration's stated insistence that Israel freeze all settlement activity, and she has felt obliged to clarify.

"Our policy on settlements has not changed," she replied to the first question Wednesday from an Egyptian journalist. "I want to say it again. Our policy on settlement activity has not changed."

The Israeli proposal "is not what we prefer," Clinton said, "because we would like to see everything ended forever. But it is something that shows at least a positive movement to the final status issues."

In her meetings in Morocco and here with Mubarak -- a last-minute add-on before her return to Washington -- Clinton has asked for help in encouraging Palestinian acceptance for at least low-level talks to avoid a vacuum in the peace process into which violent actors might be tempted to move.

Several Arab governments have suggested they -- and the Palestinians -- might be more amenable if the administration was willing to guarantee that their favored "terms of reference" were adopted as the framework for talks at any level. Their requests include acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders and the establishment of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state as a stated endpoint for negotiations. Israel, which has its own favored terms, has rejected both prior to the start of negotiations.

In his September speech to the United Nations, Obama set out "what were in essence the terms of reference for any negotiations," including mention of "the territory occupied [by Israel] since 1967 . . . Jerusalem . . . [and] refugees," Clinton said.

Asked about Palestinian proposals that they might feel more secure in negotiations if the administration would guarantee a reference to East Jerusalem, among other things, Clinton called it "a welcome suggestion," adding that "we have discussed it with them, with nearly everyone."

By Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post, November 4, 2009

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Ousted President Manuel Zelaya is asking the Obama Administration why, after pressing for his reinstatement, it now says it will recognize upcoming Honduran elections even if he isn't returned to power first.

In a letter sent to the U.S. State Department on Wednesday, Zelaya asked Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "to clarify to the Honduran people if the position condemning the coup d'etat has been changed or modified."

His request came after Washington's top envoy to Latin America, Thomas Shannon, told CNN en Espanol that Washington will recognize the Nov. 29 elections even if the Honduran Congress decides against returning Zelaya to power.

A U.S.-brokered deal reached last week leaves Zelaya's reinstatement in the hands of Congress, but sets no deadline as to when lawmakers must decide. Delays in the expected vote have generated fears in the Zelaya camp.

"Both leaders took a risk and put their trust in Congress, but at the end of the day the accord requires that both leaders accept its decision," Shannon said.

The U.S. has repeatedly pressed for Zelaya's reinstatement. President Barack Obama was explicit in a speech this summer: "America supports now the restoration of the democratically elected President of Honduras."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Wednesday that the United States considers what happened in Honduras a coup and that Zelaya should be reinstated, but he said the focus now should be on implementing last week's deal between the ousted president's representatives and the interim government of Roberto Micheletti.

"We've made our position on President Zelaya and his restitution clear. We believe he should be restored to power," Kelly said. "Our focus now is on implementing this process and creating an environment wherein Hondurans themselves can address the issue of restitution and resolve for themselves this Honduran problem."

The deal left reinstatement in the hands of Congress, but hours after shaking hands, Zelaya and others indicated a behind-the-scenes arrangement had been made with Congress to reinstate him.

"This signifies my return to power in the coming days, and peace for Honduras," he said.

His comments, and U.S. approval of the deal, left many believing Congress was ready to put him back in office.

"I think it was sort of assumed that there was a deal with Congress to reinstate him," said Dana Frank, a historian at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "But the U.S. negotiators may have underestimated the sheer nutso chaos of Honduran politics."

The leaders of Honduras' Congress said Tuesday they would consult the courts and prosecutors before deciding when to submit the measure to the full Congress for debate, which they said could be after the elections.

Congressional secretary Roberto Lara said lawmakers are still waiting to hear the opinions from the Supreme Court, which ordered Zelaya's ouster, the human rights commissioner, and the country's prosecutors, who charged him with betraying the homeland, abuse of power and other crimes.

Also Wednesday, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, who were in Honduras to oversee implementation of the agreement, said they met with Zelaya, Micheletti and other officials, and have begun the creation of a unity government.

According to the pact, the unity government, which should include both Zelaya and Micheletti supporters, needs to be established by Thursday. The verification commission, which also includes two Honduran representatives, didn't say if the deadline would be met.

"I saw that everything takes time here but I'm convinced that we're now focused on bringing different groups together to create a new cabinet," Solis said.

Juan Carlos Hidalgo, project coordinator for Latin America at Washington-based Cato Institute, said he doesn't expect Hondurans to be swayed by U.S. pressure.

"If Congress doesn't reinstate Zelaya, it certainly will be a diplomatic embarrassment for the United States since they pressured so much for his reinstatement and even threatened to not recognize the election results," said Hidalgo. "But not recognizing a popular vote was a dead-end road for the U.S. and they knew it."

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, The Associated Press, November 4, 2009

WASHINGTON - A White House official says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will represent the administration at Saturday's commissioning of a Navy assault ship built with steel from the felled World Trade Center towers.

Clinton, who represented New York state before becoming President Barack Obama's top diplomat, will join the ceremony in New York City. The White House official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the schedule before it was announced to the public.

The USS New York arrived in its namesake city on Monday. The bow of the $1 billion ship, built in Louisiana, contains about 7.5 tons of steel from the towers destroyed by hijacked jetliners in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

By PHILIP ELLIOTT , The Associated Press, November 4, 2009

CAIRO - Winding up a Middle East tour, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated on Wednesday that while the Obama administration rejects the legitimacy of Israeli settlement expansion, it nonetheless believes that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should precede a permanent freeze on such construction.

Her arguments conflicted with Arab and Palestinian demands that all settlement activity be frozen as a precondition for resuming talks with Israel.

Mrs. Clinton was speaking to reporters after meetings here with President Hosni Mubarak and other Egyptian officials.

During Mrs. Clinton's regional diplomacy, Arab officials have expressed anger at her readiness to promote a proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for a moratorium on new housing units in the West Bank that would allow building or finishing about 3,000 more units and exclude East Jerusalem from any construction limits.

In a speech Tuesday and in meetings with Arab foreign ministers during a conference of Arab and Western nations in Marrakesh, Morocco, Mrs. Clinton made it clear that the Israeli government would not agree to President Obama's call for a complete halt to settlement construction. Instead she depicted Mr. Netanyahu's offer as a reasonable compromise that could still form the basis for progress.

"It is not what we want; it is nowhere near enough," Mrs. Clinton told Al Jazeera. "But I think when you keep your eye on what we want to achieve, it is a better place to be than the alternative. And therefore, I think we should be trying to keep moving the parties."

In Cairo on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton revisited the theme. "We do not accept the legitimacy of settlement activity and we have a very firm belief that ending all settlement activity, current and future, would be preferable," Clinton said after meeting Mr. Mubarak, Reuters reported.

"Getting into final status negotiations will allow us to bring an end to settlement activity," she added.

Significantly, Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation and a key player in regional diplomacy, chose not to publicly criticize Mrs. Clinton's readiness to promote Mr. Netanyahu's ideas and to step away from the demand for a total freeze on settlements.

Egypt's reticence may relate, analysts said, to the fact that President Obama chose Cairo as the venue from which to deliver a landmark speech last June on his administration's relationship with the Arab and Muslim world. Mr. Mubarak may thus be loath to criticize Mr. Obama publicly so soon after the prestigious event.

By Mark Landler amd Alan Cowell, The New York Times, November 4, 2009

MARRAKESH, Morocco - For the last seven months, the Obama administration has labored in vain to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians together, pushing for a loose quid pro quo under which Israel would freeze construction of Jewish settlements while its Arab neighbors undertook diplomatic steps to bolster Israel's confidence in its security.

Now, in the latest acknowledgment that its policy has failed, at least for the moment, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun setting the stage for a new phase of Middle East diplomacy, with a more modest goal. She is trying to get the parties talking at any level to avoid a dangerous vacuum until a Plan B emerges.

Mrs. Clinton began sketching out this approach Tuesday in a speech and in meetings with Arab foreign ministers during a conference of Arab and Western nations in this city of pink sandstone buildings. She flew to Cairo later to hold talks with the Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak.

Making it clear that the Israeli government would not agree to President Obama's call for a complete halt to settlement construction, Mrs. Clinton promoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer as a reasonable compromise that could still form the basis for progress. Mr. Netanyahu has proposed a moratorium on new housing units in the West Bank, but would allow building or finishing about 3,000 more units and would exclude East Jerusalem from any building limits.

"It is not what we want; it is nowhere near enough," Mrs. Clinton told Al Jazeera. "But I think when you keep your eye on what we want to achieve, it is a better place to be than the alternative. And therefore, I think we should be trying to keep moving the parties."

It is not clear what contacts between Israelis and Palestinians the administration has in mind, though they would be at a lower level than Mr. Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president. Nor has the shape of an alternative strategy to rekindle peace talks emerged, according to senior officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations were confidential.

In a meeting with Mrs. Clinton in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Mr. Abbas rejected Mr. Netanyahu's proposal as a "nonstarter," in the language of his chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat.

But the United States is not giving up. The administration's special envoy for the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, met again with Mr. Abbas in Jordan on Monday, and with King Abdullah II. In Marrakesh, Mrs. Clinton tried to convince skeptical Arab foreign ministers of the value of Israel's proposal.

Administration officials are worried that paralysis in the region is a recipe for instability and violence. "We recognized coming into the region that things have stalled," said a State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley. "If there's a vacuum, there are always lots of spoilers looking to take advantage."

Mrs. Clinton told the Arab ministers that Mr. Netanyahu's proposal was better than what any previous Israeli government had offered. She took pains to say that the administration was not abandoning its push for a total freeze. But her effusive embrace of Mr. Netanyahu's offer in Jerusalem over the weekend stirred up a tempest in the Arab world, with diplomats asking whether the United States had buckled.

"President Obama was absolutely clear," Mrs. Clinton told Al Jazeera. "He wanted a halt to all settlement activity. And perhaps those of us who work with him and for him could have been clearer in communicating that that is his policy, that is what we're committed to doing."

By Mark Landler, The New York Times, November 3, 2009

CAIRO -- The Obama administration has concluded that an early resumption of high-level negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over a Palestinian state is unlikely in the near future -- an acknowledgment that it has fallen short, for now, on one of its major initial foreign policy goals.

While still pressing for face-to-face talks between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Binyamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun to urge Arab states to encourage Palestinian participation in lower-level talks with Israel to avoid a vacuum.

"We recognize that things have stalled," Clinton spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We're looking at a variety of ways that increase interaction between the parties in some form." He described the proposals as "baby steps" that would eventually "create a momentum of their own, and the effort can pick up steam."

"If there's a vacuum," he said, "there are lots of spoilers willing to take advantage. . . . We've too often in the past seen events spiral into violence."

Netanyahu has used the baby-steps formulation to argue that cooperation on economic development and other issues would be more effective than "top-down" negotiations. Such cooperation is underway in some areas, particularly West Bask security, but Palestinians have been hesitant, in general, about the approach for fear that it would delay discussion of more basic issues such as borders.

Just six weeks ago, President Obama attempted to jump-start direct talks with a clarion call to action. "Permanent status negotiations must begin, and begin soon," he said in a United Nations speech. "It is past time to talk about starting negotiations. It is time to move forward."

But Palestinian rejection last weekend of Israel's proposal to limit -- but not stop -- construction on Arab land was the culmination of months of stalemate and internal political jockeying on both sides that the administration, like so many of its predecessors, has been unable to break through.

Clinton flew to Cairo on Tuesday night from an international conference in Morocco, where Arab foreign ministers had listened skeptically to her reasons for describing the Israeli offer -- to allow unlimited construction in East Jerusalem and the completion of up to 3,000 housing units, while exercising "restraint" in the rest of the West Bank -- as "unprecedented" and worthy of discussion.

The Arabs offered little response to the lower-level engagement option Clinton outlined as a way out of the current impasse. Although she had been scheduled to return to Washington on Tuesday, following a week-long trip that began in Pakistan, she quickly arranged to travel to Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom Crowley described as "one of the key figures" in the peace process.

Even as a senior administration official acknowledged that officials are "looking at adding additional modes" below the top level for talks on "final status" and other issues, he said that they "have not stopped trying" to persuade Abbas to participate and that Clinton will try to enlist Mubarak in that effort. U.S. special envoy George J. Mitchell made a similar appeal Monday to Jordanian King Abdullah II in Amman, and met there with Abbas before flying to Egypt to compare notes with Clinton.

In her conference remarks Tuesday morning, Clinton referred to Obama's well-received speech to the Islamic world in Cairo last summer, saying that the administration is "determined and persistent in pursuit" of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. But she appeared to chastise the Arabs for criticizing her support of the Israeli proposal. "All parties should be careful about what we say," she said, warning that "recriminations . . . [were] understandable, but we have to work together toward a shared goal."

Slowing her voice and deepening her tone, Clinton said there is a choice to be made between living in the past or building a future for the Palestinians. "I would just ask you to think about how we can each demonstrate the commitment necessary to go forward," she said.

In an interview with al-Jazeera television before leaving Morocco, Clinton expressed frustration with years of failure to make progress. Near the end of her husband's presidency, she said, the two sides "came very close" to agreement. If they had succeeded, she said, "we would not be talking about settlement activity. We would have a Palestinian state. It would have East Jerusalem as its capital. It would be working to further the interests of the Palestinian people."

Hoping to demonstrate that he could be tough on Israel, unlike his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama came into office demanding a complete freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. To encourage Israel, Mitchell sought confidence-building concessions from the Arabs, including diplomatic and economic steps that held the promise of eventual full recognition of Israel.

The assumption was that an Israeli settlement freeze would, with U.S. encouragement, be matched by gestures toward Israel from the Arab states. Neither happened, as Netanyahu's right-leaning coalition rallied around opposition to Obama, and the Palestinians and other Arab states retreated to an underlying mistrust of Israel and, in particular, its current government.

As the administration sought help from the Arab states, "it isn't that they didn't want to act, they can't. There would be a huge political price" for doing so, said former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul-Illah Khatib, who said it was wrong to expect Arab states to "front-load the process" with concessions that would be unpopular at home, with no guarantee of results.

Abbas and Arab leaders quickly made a settlement freeze -- agreed to by Israel in the 2003 "road map" negotiating framework initiated by the West but never fully implemented -- a condition for talks, raising expectations in the region they were unable to fulfill.

In an illustration of the sensitivity of the issue, and how a slip of the tongue can portend misunderstanding, at least, and disaster, at worst, Clinton's discussion of her husband's peace efforts included a reference to a Palestinian state "with an Israeli capital in East Jerusalem." When the interview was over, her aides quietly suggested that she had misspoken. Clinton disagreed, but when they persisted, she listened to the recording. And then she retaped it.

By Karen DeYoung and Howard Schneider, The Washington Post, November 4, 2009

U.S. wants construction frozen, not just curbed, she emphasizes

MARRAKESH, MOROCCO -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to soothe Arab uneasiness Monday over weekend statements she made praising the Israeli government's offer to "restrain" growth in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying it "falls far short" of the Obama administration's hopes and is "not enough."

Reflecting her concern over the Arab reaction, Clinton decided to extend her week-long trip to the region, scheduled to end Tuesday, with a previously unplanned stop in Cairo on Wednesday to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. On Sunday, Egypt backed the Palestinian stance that negotiations cannot resume until Israel stops all settlement construction.

Clinton insisted that the administration still considers settlement activity on disputed territory "illegitimate" and advocates a freeze. But she repeated at a news conference here that Israel's offer was "unprecedented" and that it "holds the promise of moving a step closer to a two-state solution."

In remarks made Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Clinton set off a firestorm in the Arab world by emphasizing the "unprecedented" nature of Israel's offer while failing to add that it was "not enough." She described the overture as significant enough to draw the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, where they could argue the point with the Israelis.

Under the plan, Israel in the West Bank "will build no new settlements, expropriate no land, allow no new construction or approvals," as Clinton put it, for a period diplomats say would last nine to 12 months. But nearly 3,000 housing units currently on the books would still be built, and the ban would not include East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope to make their capital. About 300,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements.

Officials traveling with Clinton declined to characterize her earlier remarks as a mistake, saying it was important to praise Israeli movement even if it fell short of administration goals. But the officials acknowledged that her comments required further explanation.

Clinton's attendance here at a conference on development and governance in the Arab world was initially intended to solidify the goodwill engendered by President Obama's speech to the Islamic world in Cairo in June. But it was quickly overwhelmed by controversy over Clinton's remarks.

Even before Clinton's bilateral and group meetings here began Monday morning, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, holding court in a hotel lobby near the conference center, said, "We have to ask her -- does she really think this an acceptable thing?"

Late in the afternoon, foreign ministers from Persian Gulf states sat grim-faced in front of television cameras ushered in at the beginning of a closed-door meeting with Clinton. When a reporter asked Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal to comment as he began a one-on-one meeting with Clinton, she interjected, "No questions," and the door was closed. When Saud swept out of the session 20 minutes later, he would say only: "She's having a press conference."

The Arab response illustrated the sensitivities that have long characterized the peace process, as well as the difficulty of achieving the Obama administration's goal of restarting negotiations by the end of the year.

Clinton's comments represented a shift in the dynamics since Obama took office, with initial pressure on Israel giving way over the past several weeks to apparent impatience over the refusal of Palestinian officials to resume peace talks in the absence of a settlement freeze.

Clinton's remarks in Jerusalem, made as she stood smiling at Netanyahu's side, "mean that we are once again in the same vicious circle we were in the 1990s," Moussa said. "Everything is negotiable. We are not ready to be taken for a ride again by Israeli diplomacy."

Analysts were also dubious that Israel's offer represented any breakthrough.

Elliott Abrams, a deputy national security adviser in the Bush administration who helped negotiate an unwritten agreement with Israel on settlement growth, said that based on the statements of Netanyahu and Clinton, "this is precisely what was agreed with the Israelis in the previous administration."

Israel inconsistently lived up to the Bush-era agreement, and Clinton refused to acknowledge it when she took office, insisting instead on a full settlement freeze.

Geoffrey Aronson, executive director of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and a close tracker of settlement growth, said he is puzzled about why the Obama administration is making its claims, because the number of housing starts that would be grandfathered in would be historically higher than the annual growth most years in the West Bank settlements.

"There is not a great deal of clarity, and it is hard to make an assessment," Aronson said. " 'Unprecedented' is a reach, in my view."

By Karen De Young, The Washington Post, November 3, 2009

MARRAKESH, Morocco - Struggling to stem protests from the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday reiterated that the Obama administration still wanted Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, even if it regarded Israel's compromise offer as "unprecedented."

Arab officials expressed alarm that the United States seemed to be easing pressure on Israel after Mrs. Clinton said in Jerusalem on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal of restrained settlement building was better than anything previous Israeli governments had offered.

Mrs. Clinton said the administration would not stop pushing Mr. Netanyahu to do more. But she said that in trying to revive a stalled peace process, she wanted to offer Israel encouragement for moving in the right direction, even if that movement fell short of what the United States wanted.

"I will offer positive reinforcement to the parties when I believe they are taking steps that support the objective of reaching a two-state solution," she said here, on the eve of a conference of Arab and Western countries. "I will also push them as I have in public and private to do even more."

Mrs. Clinton's statement was intended to clarify her remarks in Jerusalem, which had left some of her aides nonplused because she had not voiced the administration's official position that settlements are illegitimate.

Though not a core subject in peace negotiations, Jewish settlements are a charged issue for Israelis and Palestinians because they involve building in areas that both claim as their ancestral lands.

The administration's handling of settlements has become a new source of tension in the Middle East. The Palestinians are refusing to negotiate with Israel in the absence of a complete freeze, while other Arab leaders are seizing on what they view as a retreat by the United States.

Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, urged the administration not to accept what he called a "slap in the face" by Israel. He said he hoped the Americans would "try hard and in a firmer way." Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said the United States had to provide "guarantees about issues of settlements."

The inability to win a freeze would undermine the prospects for peace talks, Mr. Moussa told reporters. "I'm really afraid that we're about to see a failure," he said.

On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton met in the emirate of Abu Dhabi with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who rejected an Israeli proposal to put a moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, but to allow the completion of about 3,000 additional units and to exclude East Jerusalem from any restrictions.

The Palestinian foreign minister, Riad Malki, said accepting such an offer would undermine the Palestinian Authority when Mr. Abbas had already hurt his standing among Arabs by agreeing to defer consideration of a United Nations report detailing evidence of possible war crimes by both the Israelis and Palestinian militants in Gaza last winter. Mr. Abbas eventually reversed himself, pushing to have the report sent to the Security Council.

Mr. Malki said in an interview that he was surprised by Mrs. Clinton's comments in Jerusalem. "It was, from our point of view, inconsistent with what we had heard back in Abu Dhabi."

At her first public appearance in Marrakesh on Monday, Mrs. Clinton read a statement saying that the American position had not changed. "As the president has said on many occasions," she declared, "the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."

A State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, declined to characterize her earlier remarks as a misstep, but said, "We obviously were very conscious of the reaction in the region to her appearance in Jerusalem."

While the Obama administration has not changed its policy, its public statements on settlements have evolved considerably. In May, Mrs. Clinton said President Obama wanted to see "a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions."

But at the United Nations in September, Mr. Obama used the word "restrain" in referring to construction, suggesting the administration realized it was unlikely to get a total freeze.

Some Middle East analysts said the Obama administration may have concluded that there was no value in continuing to press Israel about settlements, when the prospects for peace negotiations seemed remote.

"They're dialing things back a notch until they can think through how and what to do for the next phase," said Aaron David Miller, a public policy analyst at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Some administration officials have said they are rethinking a strategy that has produced neither a settlement freeze nor gestures toward Israel by its Arab neighbors, which Mr. Obama has also sought.

Mrs. Clinton unexpectedly put off her return to Washington for a day so she could fly to Cairo on Tuesday to meet the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak. American officials said she wanted to meet face to face with a "critical player" to discuss developments in the region.

On Monday, Mrs. Clinton met with foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Afterward, she said some ministers seemed unaware of the extent of the Israeli proposal on settlements, which she said "holds the promise of moving a step closer to a two-state solution."

By Mark Landler, The New York Times, November 2, 2009

MARRAKECH, Morocco - Trying to mute Arab criticism that the Obama administration had retreated from its tough stance on Israeli settlements, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday softened her praise for Israel's offer to restrain new housing in Palestinian areas.

Clinton said that Israel was moving in the right direction in its offer to restrict but not stop the settlements, but that its offer "falls far short" of U.S. expectations.

Her earlier praise of Israel's offer had been intended as "positive reinforcement," she said. But it drew widespread criticism from Persian Gulf ministers who interpreted it as a softening of the U.S. position on settlements, which stand in the way of a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

In a sign of Washington's eagerness to calm Arab concerns about the U.S. position, Clinton's staff said she was extending her trip by one day to fly to Cairo to meet tomorrow with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. She had been due to return to Washington today.

Clinton's comments appeared to reflect a realization within the Obama administration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government will not accept a full-on settlement freeze and that a partial halt may be the best lesser option. Her appeal on Saturday seemed designed to make Israel's position more palatable to the Palestinians and Arab states.

"We have to work with what we've got," said one U.S. official, adding, "We need to press both sides not to miss this opportunity."

Clinton traveled to the region only reluctantly, concerned that her visit might be seen as a failure, according to several U.S. officials. She agreed to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders after pressure from the White House, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking.

A White House official said the earlier meetings on the Mideast in the United Arab Emirates were added because Clinton was already in the region for meetings in Pakistan and Morocco.

During a photo session yesterday with her Moroccan counterpart, Clinton was asked by a reporter about the Arab reaction. She responded by reading from a statement that appeared designed to counter the skepticism about the Obama administration's views on settlements.

"Successive American administrations of both parties have opposed Israel's settlement policy," she said. "That is absolutely a fact, and the Obama administration's position on settlements is clear, unequivocal, and it has not changed. As the president has said on many occasions, the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."

Clinton's tweaking of her earlier remarks appeared to satisfy at least some at the Morocco meeting.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said, "We have heard her say something completely different from that statement in line with previous statements, so we are happy that such a position was highlighted and brought back to the right line."

In her recalibrated comments, Clinton also called on the Israelis to do more to improve "movement and access" for Palestinians. She added, however, that Israel deserved praise for moving in the right direction.

Clinton also stressed that the Palestinian authorities deserved credit for what she called "unprecedented" steps to improve security in the West Bank and praised the Palestinians for progress in training their security forces.

By Robert Burns, Associated Press, November 3, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says it's up to Afghan officials to decide the way ahead after the top challenger to President Hamid Karzai pulled out of next weekend's runoff election.

Clinton said in a statement released by the State Department on Sunday that former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah ran "a dignified and constructive campaign" and won the support of the Afghan people.

She said the U.S. will support the next Afghan president and the Afghan people. She said they are seeking a better future and deserve one.

Clinton said Afghan officials must conclude the electoral process in a way that's in line with the Afghan constitution.

The statement was released while Clinton was traveling in Morocco.

The Associated Press, November 1, 2009

MARRAKECH, Morocco - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton prepared Monday to consult with Arab foreign ministers on Obama administration efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace negotiations, two days after she raised Arab ire by praising Israel's offer to limit - but not stop - Jewish settlement construction.

Clinton was to meet first with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri before flying to the southern-central city of Ouarzazate for an audience with King Mohammed VI. Later she was returning to Marrakech for talks with foreign ministers of several Persian Gulf nations.

Clinton also was expected to meet separately with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who has rejected U.S. appeals for improved Arab relations with Israel as a way to help restart Middle East peace talks, saying the Jewish state is not interested in a deal.

After taking office in January, President Barack Obama buoyed Palestinian hopes for progress toward establishing a Palestinian state with his outreach to the Muslim world and an initially tough stance urging a full freeze to all settlement construction.

But after making little headway with the Israelis in recent months, Clinton urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in a face-to-face meeting in Abu Dhabi on Saturday to renew talks, which broke down late last year, without conditions. Abbas said no, insisting that Israel first halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem - lands the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Then, at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Saturday in Jerusalem, Clinton praised Netanyahu's offer to curb some settlement construction, saying it was an unprecedented gesture.

"I believe that the U.S. condones continued settlement expansion," Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib said Sunday in a rare public chiding of Washington.

"Calling for a resumption of negotiations despite continued settlement construction doesn't help because we have tried this way many times," Khatib added. "Negotiations are about ending the occupation and settlement expansion is about entrenching the occupation."

Palestinians expressed deep disappointment and frustration at Clinton's words, which signaled a softening of the past U.S. call for a complete freeze on settlement activity.

Jordan and Egypt also issued statements Sunday critical of the latest U.S. approach to the settlements issue. Clinton spoke by telephone with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

Clinton was in Marrakech to attend a regional conference called Forum for the Future, with representatives of nations of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as advanced industrialized countries. It is the final stop on a weeklong journey that began Wednesday in Pakistan.

By ROBERT BURNS, The Associated Press, November 2, 2009

JERUSALEM - Dealing a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to restart Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed Saturday to persuade the Palestinian leader to accept an Israeli proposal that would slow but not stop the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, insisted that Israel must halt all construction of housing units before broader negotiations could begin. He rebuffed an Israeli proposal - developed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and relayed by Mrs. Clinton - to complete about 3,000 units and temporarily freeze other construction, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said after the meeting.

"This is a nonstarter," Mr. Erekat said. "Mr. Netanyahu has a choice, settlements or peace, and he has chosen settlements."

Mrs. Clinton's meetings, which came after a three-day trip to Pakistan, followed on President Obama's pledge last month to redouble American efforts to revive the peace process. But on a marathon day of diplomacy that took her from the Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi to Israel and then on to Morocco, she discovered that if anything, the hurdles to a peace negotiation have grown larger.

American officials insist Mrs. Clinton did not push Mr. Abbas to accept the Israeli proposal in her two-hour meeting with him, which was hastily arranged and took place in Abu Dhabi,. But she made clear later she was eager to narrow the gap between the two sides.

"We know that negotiations often take positions that then have to be worked through, once the actual process starts," she said at a news conference in Jerusalem, where she met with Mr. Netanyahu.

She also markedly softened her tone on whether Israel should cease all settlement construction, something she and Mr. Obama have demanded since early in the administration. While Mrs. Clinton said the administration's desire to see a complete freeze had not changed, she characterized Mr. Netanyahu's offer of "restraint" on settlements as "unprecedented."

And she conspicuously avoided criticizing the demolition of Palestinians' houses in East Jerusalem, though she said her opposition to it had not changed. In March, on her first visit to the Middle East as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton strongly condemned the demolitions, which Palestinians say are aimed at squeezing them out and would hamper the creation of a Palestinian state.

In recent days, the municipal authorities in Jerusalem have ordered the demolition of more houses.

For his part, Mr. Netanyahu accused the Palestinians of using settlements as a pretext to avoid negotiations.

"We think we should sit around that negotiating table right away," he said. "I think what we should do on the path to peace is to simply is get on it, and get with it."

The administration's efforts to revive peace negotiations have been unsuccessful, largely for reasons having to do both with its own ambitious goals and with unfavorable regional politics.

In addition to the settlement freeze, Mr. Obama has tried to extract a series of reciprocal confidence-building gestures from Israel's Arab neighbors - for example, opening Israeli trade offices in those countries, or allowing Israeli passenger planes to fly over Arab territory.

Saudi Arabia rebuffed these requests, which made it less likely that other Arab countries would follow with such gestures. In Israel, the election of a right-wing government under Mr. Netanyahu dimmed the prospects for a settlement freeze, given the pressures from his coalition.

Mr. Netanyahu has offered a moratorium on the construction of new settlements in the West Bank, but not in East Jerusalem. He would also allow additional construction in the West Bank to support the growing families of settlers - a provision known as "natural growth."

The publication of a United Nations report alleging war crimes in Gaza last winter greatly complicated the calculus. Mr. Netanyahu said that if the report, which accuses both sides of war crimes, were advanced in the United Nations, it would kill off talks before they started.

The United States pressed the Palestinian Authority to bottle up the report in the United Nations Human Rights Council, which it agreed to do. But that set off a political conflagration at home, and Mr. Abbas reversed himself, voting to forward the report to the Security Council.

With his credibility damaged and with elections looming in January, Mr. Abbas has been reluctant to enter talks. And he is citing Mr. Obama's tough line on settlements as a reason to hold out.

"Secretary Clinton told us," Mr. Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said, "that the United States considers settlements to be illegitimate and does not accept the annexation of East Jerusalem."

By Mark Landler and Ethan Bronner, The New York Times, October 31, 2009

In the Mideast to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls Israeli offers on Jewish settlement growth 'unprecedented,' but the Palestinians insist on a freeze.

Reporting from Jerusalem - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, trying to coax Palestinian leaders to restart peace talks with Israel, said Saturday that Israel was offering "unprecedented" concessions to limit the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Clinton's remarks moved the Obama administration closer to Israel's position and further from that of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has refused to return to negotiations without a total freeze on settlement activity on land Palestinians claim for a future state.

After a day of meetings with leaders of both sides, Clinton appeared no closer to ending the impasse.

Clinton met with Abbas in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, before flying to Israel. Abbas told reporters after the meeting that he had stuck to his position that "peace must have its commitments -- [that] being the complete halt to settlement building."

Abbas' spokesman, Nabil abu Rudaineh, added: "There was no breakthrough in the talks."

The settlements, built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War, have been a stumbling block in decades of efforts to end the conflict. The last round of U.S.-brokered talks broke off last December, in part because Palestinian leaders felt the process was undermined by ongoing settlement activity. Nearly 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

Palestinians contend that under a U.S.-backed 2003 peace plan, Israel is obliged to halt settlement growth.

President Obama called last spring for a freeze but, in the face of Israeli resistance, changed course. To the dismay of Palestinian leaders, Obama demanded only "restraint" on settlements when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas in September.

Speaking at a news conference with Clinton on Saturday, Netanyahu repeated the concessions he is willing to make: Israel will build no new settlement communities, expropriate no land for existing ones and limit the number of permits for new housing construction.

In previous statements, Israeli officials had said they would permit no more than about 3,000 new homes for nine months after a new round of peace talks starts.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready to start talks right away and that the Palestinians could bring their objections about settlements to the negotiating table.

"What we should do on the path to peace is get on it and get with it," he said.

Clinton, a vocal advocate of a settlement freeze last spring, adopted a far milder tone as she stood beside Netanyahu at his Jerusalem headquarters before their meeting.

She concurred with two of his assertions at the news conference: that until this year the Palestinians had never made a settlement freeze a prior condition for peace talks, and that no previous Israeli leader had offered to limit settlement growth in advance of such negotiations.

"What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy of settlements . . . is unprecedented," Clinton said.

She noted that Republican and Democratic administrations in Washington had consistently questioned the legitimacy of settlements, but said that was no reason to hold up talks.

"The important thing, as the prime minister just said, is to get into the negotiations," she said. "I gave the same message today when I met with President Abbas."

In an interview earlier Saturday with the BBC, Clinton said that although the Obama administration had "very serious questions about the settlements," she understood why Israel builds them.

"It has to do with their security needs and fears, about trying to have a defensible perimeter around Israel," she said.

Responding to Clinton's comments, Abbas' spokesman said, "There can be no excuse for the continuation of settlements, which is the main obstacle in the way of any credible peace process."

The exchange appeared to leave Abbas isolated as the holdout in Obama's Middle East peace initiative. Israeli officials say they believe the Palestinian leader may not want to compromise because he would risk losing support to his rivals in the militant Hamas movement before Palestinian Authority elections scheduled next year in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abbas' control is limited to the West Bank. Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has yet to agree on terms for holding elections.

On Saturday, Hamas spokesman Sami abu Zuhri said Clinton's visit to the region was "destined to fail" because of U.S. efforts to isolate Hamas. The United States refuses to engage with the Islamic movement until it drops its advocacy of violence against the Jewish state.

By Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2009

The discontent is not just from radicals, even college students and respected journalists question Washington's intentions in Pakistan. Some liken U.S. drone missile strikes to terrorism.

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan - Every time Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to win over Pakistanis during her three-day charm offensive last week, they fired back a polite but firm message:

We don't really trust your country.

No matter how hard Clinton tried to reassure audiences in Lahore and Islamabad with talk of providing economic aid where it's needed most, Pakistanis seized on her visit as the perfect moment to lash out at a U.S. government they perceive as arrogant, domineering and insensitive to their plight.

At a televised town hall meeting in Islamabad, the capital, on Friday, a woman in a mostly female audience characterized U.S. drone missile strikes on suspected terrorist targets in northwestern Pakistan as de facto acts of terrorism. A day earlier in Lahore, a college student asked Clinton why every student who visits the U.S. is viewed as a terrorist.

The opinions Clinton heard weren't the strident voices of radical clerics or politicians with anti-U.S. agendas. Some of the most biting criticisms came from well-mannered university students and respected, seasoned journalists, a reflection of the breadth of dissatisfaction Pakistanis have with U.S. policy toward their country.

In those voices what rang clear was a sense that Pakistan was paying a heavy price for America's "war on terror."

"You had one 9/11, and we are having daily 9/11s in Pakistan," Asma Shirazi, a journalist with Geo TV, told Clinton during the Islamabad town hall meeting.

Clinton's visit came at a time when Pakistanis' suspicions about U.S. intentions in their country are at an all-time high.

A five-year, $7.5-billion aid package to Pakistan recently signed into law by President Obama has stoked much of the animosity. Measures in the legislation aimed at ensuring the money isn't misspent have been perceived by Pakistanis as levers that Washington can use to exert control over their country.

Pakistanis also continue to be incensed by U.S. reliance on drone missile strikes to take out top Al Qaeda and Taliban commanders in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

The CIA-operated drone strikes have killed at least 13 senior Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the tribal areas in the last 18 months. But Pakistani government and military leaders say the strikes have also killed hundreds of civilians and amount to violations of Pakistan's sovereignty.

At the Islamabad town hall meeting, a student from a university in Peshawar, a city shaken by a car bomb blast Wednesday that killed 118 people, summed up the anger over the drone attacks.

"What is actually terrorism in U.S. eyes?" the woman asked. "Is it the killing of innocent people in, let's say, drone attacks? Or is it the killing of innocent people in different parts of Pakistan, like the bomb blast in Peshawar two days ago? Which one is terrorism, do you think?"

Pressed by the forum's moderator whether she thought U.S. drone missile strikes were tantamount to terrorism, Clinton answered, "No, I do not."

On the one occasion when Clinton struck her own assertive tone, the message appeared to get through. Her suggestion to Pakistani journalists in Lahore that elements within the Pakistani government were probably aware of the whereabouts of Al Qaeda leaders but were not acting on the information struck a chord on the opinion pages of major Pakistani newspapers.

"If we are honest, we cannot deny that much of what she said was true," remarked the English-language daily the News in an editorial that appeared Saturday.

Clinton repeatedly acknowledged the mutual lack of trust that has held back the relationship, and she emphasized the Obama administration's commitment to addressing crucial issues for Pakistanis that reach beyond terrorism, such as shoring up Pakistan's beleaguered electricity grid and improving schools and healthcare.

Pakistanis, however, clearly remained unconvinced that Washington was as interested in improving the quality of life in Pakistan as it was in tracking down terrorists. And on several occasions during her trip, Clinton was confronted by Pakistanis who blamed the previous U.S. administration's policies in Afghanistan for the militancy now wreaking havoc across Pakistan.

"Look, Madam Secretary, we are fighting a war that is imposed on us," journalist Shirazi told Clinton. "It's not our war. That was your war, and we are fighting that war."

Assessments of Clinton's trip in Saturday's Pakistani newspapers were gloomy.

"One cannot help feeling that [Clinton's trip] was an abortive exercise," remarked an editorial in the Nation, another English-language newspaper, "and she went away fully conscious of that failure."




By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2009

But Palestinians reject Netanyahu's offer on settlements

JERUSALEM -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had offered "unprecedented" concessions on West Bank settlement construction in an effort to restart peace talks, a departure from the administration's earlier criticism of Israel and a possible signal of impatience with the refusal of Palestinian leaders to join negotiations.

At the start of a day of diplomacy that stretched from Abu Dhabi to Jerusalem, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's latest offer, relayed by Clinton, to curb most West Bank construction.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the plan would have excluded about 3,000 Israeli housing units under construction and would not have applied to East Jerusalem -- thus falling well short of what has become a firm Palestinian demand for resuming direct talks with Israel.

"The U.S. said that is the best they can get" from Netanyahu, even though the Obama administration considers settlements 'illegal and illegitimate,' " Erekat said. The Palestinians will not accept a resumption of talks on that basis, he said.

At a news conference here Saturday night with Netanyahu, Clinton did not comment on the Palestinian account of the talks she had earlier in the day with Abbas. She said the differences between the two sides on all issues should be negotiated face to face.

Those comments and others seemed to mark a final departure from early U.S criticism with Israel over settlements, which ultimately served to bolster Netanyahu with the Israeli public even as it raised -- unrealistically, as it turned out -- Palestinian expectations that a building freeze was in the offing.

The meetings came as the peace process appeared increasingly unlikely to achieve President Obama's stated goal of resuming direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by the end of the year. Clinton's objective on this trip seemed less to achieve any real breakthrough than to give the impression of continued effort.

But the Palestinian position, if anything, appears to have hardened in recent days, leaving Israel to portray itself as the more willing partner.

Abbas, under fire from constituents for previous compromises with the United States, the controversy over a U.N. report on alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza and recent Israeli home demolitions in Jerusalem, is regarded as having little room to negotiate on the key demand for a settlement freeze.

"I think the place to resolve differences of opinion is around the negotiating table," Netanyahu said. "We are prepared to start peace talks immediately," he said, calling for both sides to "get on with it and get with it."

Although she reiterated the administration's position that "all settlement activity" must cease, Clinton seemed unwilling to press the point as forcefully as she had in the past and joined Netanyahu in portraying the Palestinians as the spoilers.

She called for a resumption of talks "without preconditions" and suggested that the Palestinian demand for a halt to West Bank construction was an unreasonable obstacle.

That marked a change in tone from a trip here in March, when she sharply criticized Israeli settlement policies. After her initial public demands that Israel stop building in the West Bank, Clinton on Saturday praised steps taken by Netanyahu as "unprecedented."

Netanyahu, while demanding that some building in the West Bank continue, has said he would not approve any new settlements and would show "restraint" in expanding existing ones.

The Palestinians regard the land occupied by about 300,000 West Bank settlers as part of a future Palestinian state, and consider continued settlement activity an effort to influence negotiations.

Israel promised to halt settlements under previous international agreements, and Palestinian officials say they want those promises fulfilled.

But "what the prime minister has offered in specifics, of restraint on the policy of settlements, of no new starts, for example, is unprecedented," Clinton said. The two sides, she said, should sit down together so that Netanyahu "will be able to present his government's proposal."

Erekat said Clinton communicated the Israeli position in a two-hour meeting with Abbas in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where the Palestinian leader had stopped on a regional tour to build Arab support. Clinton flew to Israel later in the evening for talks with Netanyahu.

A senior administration official traveling with her also declined to comment on the Palestinians' account.

State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley described the U.S. role as that of honest broker, saying Clinton and special envoy George J. Mitchell were speaking to both sides to help "narrow the gap" between them "to where negotiations make sense."

Clinton's stops in Abu Dhabi and Jerusalem were added after she left Washington on Tuesday for a seven-day trip -- the first three days in Pakistan and the last two to be spent at a conference with Arab leaders in Morocco. When the trip was planned many weeks ago, the days in the middle were left free for a possible stop in Afghanistan.

That possibility was ruled out when the Aug. 20 Afghan election proved inconclusive. The decision to skip Kabul was confirmed when a new election was scheduled for Nov. 7.

By Karen DeYoung and Howard Schneider, The Washington Post, November 1, 2009

U.S. PLAYS DOWN SIGNIFICANCE
Clinton says departure won't affect vote's legitimacy

KABUL -- The top challenger to President Hamid Karzai in the Nov. 7 election prepared Saturday to withdraw from the race, complicating President Obama's deliberations over whether to expand the war effort in Afghanistan at a critical moment.

Aides to Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister, indicated that their candidate would clarify his intentions at a meeting Sunday of supporters from across the country. A decision to leave the race could make it more difficult for Obama to send additional U.S. combat troops to Afghanistan if the next government is not accepted by the Afghan electorate as a result.

Although advisers said Abdullah has yet to make up his mind, they suggested that Karzai effectively pushed him from the race by declining to fire the country's top election official, who oversaw the flawed first round in August, and take other steps to ensure a fair vote. A U.N.-backed audit of the first-round balloting found that nearly one in three votes cast for Karzai was fraudulent.

Obama administration officials played down Abdullah's threat, calling it a personal calculation that would probably have little bearing on whether a majority of Afghans accept the result of the vote. Abdullah's name will appear on the already-printed ballots regardless of his decision, and his absence could ensure a smoother campaign and vote count if he declines to condemn Karzai as he drops out.

"I think it is his decision to make," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. "But I do not think it affects the legitimacy. When President Karzai accepted a runoff without knowing what the outcome would be, that bestowed legitimacy from that moment."

After several weeks of deliberations, Obama is in the final stage of deciding how to proceed in Afghanistan, where the United States is waging an eight-year-old war he has called one of "necessity." Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has requested tens of thousands of additional troops to support a counterinsurgency strategy to weaken the Taliban and protect the Afghan population. Some senior Obama advisers, however, are arguing for a plan focused more narrowly on defeating al-Qaeda than on fighting an indigenous insurgency and helping to build an effective Afghan state.

The legitimacy of the Afghan government is essential to McChrystal's broader strategy, which requires not only a militarily effective partner in Kabul but also a government that the majority of Afghans believes is a viable alternative to the Taliban. Karzai was favored to win a second five-year term, but a withdrawal by Abdullah could leave many Afghans dissatisfied with the next government.

"We don't want to boycott, but Mr. Karzai has not accepted any conditions, so he left us with no other choice," said one member of Abdullah's political team, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Abdullah has not yet announced his plans. "There is no guarantee that a second round would be free and fair. It would only create more problems than it solves."

A question of legality

U.S. officials had pressed Karzai to accept the runoff after the flawed Aug. 20 vote, and he reluctantly agreed, although there was widespread concern among Afghans that the second round would be marred by fraud and even more vulnerable to insurgent attacks than the first poll. This week, the Taliban killed five U.N. workers in Kabul and threatened to sabotage the Nov. 7 vote.

Even after hundreds of thousands of votes for Karzai were found invalid and discounted after the first round, the president won more than 49 percent of the vote, while Abdullah won less than 30 percent. A senior Obama administration official involved in the policy review said of Abdullah on Saturday: "It's not surprising he's not going to contest an election he wasn't going to win."

"This is not a challenge in any way to the process of choosing the next Afghan president. This is politics," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about White House thinking, citing the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue. "However this shakes out, it does not affect the legitimacy of the process in the way, for example, that there were questions when Karzai was considering whether or not to accept the runoff."

Aides to Karzai said Saturday that Abdullah has no right to boycott the election and that if he does, it will be up to Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission to decide what to do. But they also said he is legally allowed to resign from the race, in which case Karzai would automatically win.

"He can resign, but he cannot boycott, because he already accepted the election the first time," Moinuddin Manastial, a legislator and campaign aide to Karzai, said late Saturday. "He is making excuses to do something that is not in the constitution, while we are ready to go for the elections 100 percent."

Election officials said that they are still preparing to hold the vote, that Afghan security forces are ready to secure the more than 6,000 polling stations across the country and that neither candidate has the right to withdraw at this late date.

Widespread skepticism

Independent election experts said it is not clear what will happen if Abdullah, who has been seeking a power-sharing government with Karzai, quits the race. They said most of the possible options -- canceling the vote and having Karzai declared president, having him run alone, or postponing the race until spring and replacing Abdullah with the No. 3 vote-getter -- would either leave the country in political limbo or Karzai as head of a weak new administration.

"The situation is both depressing and complicated," said Ahmad Nader Nadery, chairman of the private Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. "The law is silent on what to do in this situation, and whatever happens is likely to bring us more deeply into trouble, because we will probably end up with a president who did not get the minimum number of votes in a fair election."

Local analysts and Kabul residents glued to TV news stations Saturday expressed concern that violence could erupt in the capital and other cities if Abdullah quits the race amid angry recriminations. Some of Abdullah's powerful supporters who command regional or private militias have vowed not to recognize or obey a new Karzai administration.

Abdullah, who abruptly canceled a scheduled trip to India on Saturday, has delayed announcing his decision for the past several days amid a flurry of private negotiations and meetings involving Karzai, the challenger and their political aides and allies, as well as several foreign diplomats.

But sources close to the discussions told various media outlets in recent days that talks between the two rivals collapsed after Karzai announced that he would not meet Abdullah's demands to fire the election commission chairman and other officials. Since then, several sources said, Abdullah has leaned toward boycotting the contest.

Although Abdullah's public manner has been polite and his demands have sounded reasonable, there is widespread public skepticism about his sincerity. Some analysts say he wants to remain in the race but is surrounded by ambitious allies who have been pressing him to make a deal with Karzai.

Diplomatic sources said last week that Karzai was open to forming a "government of unity" after the elections that would include Abdullah and his allies, but that he would not make any deal in advance.

Some experts and diplomats have suggested that if the country's political crisis deepens or violence erupts, the wisest solution would be to establish an interim or caretaker government and hold a new election in the spring, when the winter snows have melted and voters can go to the polls again.

By Pamela Constable and Scott Wilson, The Washington Post, November 1, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - For Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has had her ups and downs with the news media, the prospect of spending three days under the remorseless glare of the Pakistani news media might have felt like an unwelcome return to a time right before the New Hampshire primary.

Yet Mrs. Clinton, whose press clippings since she became secretary of state have been kinder than when she was a presidential candidate, rolled with the punches this week in a media-saturated tour of Pakistan. She submitted to four round-table interviews over three days in which Pakistan's leading journalists took their best shots at her, and she even counterpunched once or twice.

By the time she left Islamabad on Friday, she appeared to have fought Pakistan's fourth estate to a draw.

"On the whole, Ms. Clinton made a very deliberate effort to bridge the divide that has recently grown and talked of constructing a special relationship," said an editorial in The News, one of Pakistan's main English-language daily newspapers. It did, however, chide her for snarling traffic in Lahore, the country's second-largest city, which she visited on Thursday under elaborate security.

Engaging Pakistan's unruly media was perhaps Mrs. Clinton's most important job on this visit. Newspapers and television drive public opinion more here than in many countries, and the coverage is sharply critical of the United States, tapping into deep Pakistani resentment.

That poses a problem for the Obama administration, which needs Pakistan to join its campaign to fight extremists and stabilize Afghanistan. The latest spike in anti-American sentiment here was driven by media reports that a new aid bill would infringe on Pakistan's sovereignty.

"I will admit that clearly there is a lot of misperception, and perception is reality, so therefore it is up to us to try to set it straight," Mrs. Clinton said Wednesday in an interview with seven television journalists. "Frankly, I think one of the problems is that we did not have a program to reach out to the Pakistani press. That will never happen again."

Najam Sethi, the editor of The Friday Times, an English-language weekly, said "the media is part of the problem, not the solution." Much of the news media, he said, is driven by fervent nationalism and uncritical support for Pakistan's murky entanglements with radical groups in the region.

After the press was unshackled by President Pervez Musharraf during his last years in power, it exploded into a cacophony of publications, many of which gleefully traffic in rumors.

"She did well to interact," Mr. Sethi said. "She may not have made many new friends, but she certainly didn't make new enemies."

Mrs. Clinton sat down first with the TV journalists because they set the agenda. So great is their influence that the questions posed to Mrs. Clinton by young people the next day sounded like those the broadcasters had asked - blunt and combative, though just short of rude.

An example came Friday at an interview for the program "Our Voice" when a young woman asked Mrs. Clinton whether she viewed the Predator drone attacks used by the United States in Pakistan's frontier areas as terrorism.

"No, I do not," she replied.

Earlier in the week when Mrs. Clinton was asked about this highly classified drone program, she steadfastly declined to comment.

Mrs. Clinton showed a similar flash of defiance when she was asked why the United States viewed Pakistan as the focus of the global campaign against terrorism. She pointed out that Al Qaeda's leaders had sought refuge in Pakistan since 2002 and she suggested that the Pakistani government had done less than it should have to root them out.

At the interview on Friday, she was also asked why the United States micromanaged Pakistan's affairs, why there was such a deep "trust deficit" between the countries, and whether the private security contractors who guard the embassy here were shielded by diplomatic immunity.

Mrs. Clinton answered the first two but said she was not sure of the answer to the third. Pakistani papers have run articles reporting that contractors were illegally carrying weapons in Islamabad.

The newspapers and television gave ample coverage to Mrs. Clinton's visit. But some could not resist taking a shot: The Nation, an English-language daily, carried an unflattering front-page picture of Mrs. Clinton, with her eyes bulging and her face twisted in mock horror.

On Wednesday, news channels juxtaposed images of Mrs. Clinton with carnage at the women's market in Peshawar, connecting her arrival with the car bomb that killed more than 100 people the same day.

Mrs. Clinton said she had expected a rough reception. One aide said she insisted on not excluding journalists known for their anti-American views, against the advice of some at the embassy.

She also went out of her way to cultivate radio journalists, giving them an hourlong interview on Friday. The special American representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, is developing a plan to encourage new FM radio stations as a way to counterbalance propaganda from radio stations that fall into the hands of the Taliban or other militants.

"They use the radio to say that women shouldn't go to school, to say that women shouldn't go out of their homes," Mrs. Clinton said. "You know, that's very intimidating, that's very frightening."

By the end of her visit, Madam Secretary seemed to have fine-tuned her image. A senior American official said that when Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the director of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency, met her on Thursday evening, he told her that he was touched by photos of her wearing a pale-blue headscarf as she toured a Sufi shrine in Islamabad.

By Mark Landler, The New York Times, October 30, 2009

For Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the shadow of a prominent husband hasn't been so easy to shake.

The latest example of former President Bill Clinton's impact on his wife's career: She might have been Barack Obama's vice president if not for him.

In his new memoir, David Plouffe, Mr. Obama's former campaign manager, says that the president-elect seriously considered his former rival to be his No. 2 in the White House, but ultimately decided against it because of Mr. Clinton.

Obama, Mr. Plouffe says, explained his decision saying, "I think Bill may be too big a complication. If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship."

This is not the first example of the "Bill effect" for Mrs. Clinton.

Her nomination to her current post of secretary of State hinged on negotiations with Mr. Clinton over his speaking engagements and international fundraising for his William J. Clinton Foundation. She was formally nominated only after Mr. Clinton turned over information on more than 200,000 donors to his foundation and agreed to conditions on his charity work.

Back when Mrs. Clinton was a candidate in the 2008 presidential election, Mr. Clinton was also criticized by some as a liability to her campaign for what some perceived to be overly aggressive criticisms of other candidates. Whether his criticisms helped or hurt her campaign, Mr. Clinton was labeled his wife's "attack dog." Even Obama complained, "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."

More recently, Mrs. Clinton's trip to Africa in August was momentarily overshadowed by her husband's negotiation of the release of two journalists who had been detained in North Korea. Later in the trip, she was widely perceived to have lashed out at a Congolese student who asked about Mr. Clinton. She said, "My husband is not secretary of State; I am. I am not going to be channeling my husband."

But Mr. Clinton maintains that his main priority since leaving office has been supporting the political ambitions of his wife.

Back on the campaign trail, he singled out a man in the back of the Iowa fairgrounds where he was stumping for his wife.

"I want to thank all of you who are here," he said. "But there's one guy back in the back over there that represents the group I belong to."

His sign? It said, "Husbands for Hillary."

By Tracey Samuelson, The Christian Science Monitor, October 30, 2009

The secretary of state's blunt remarks, foreign policy experts say, give Pakistan's leadership a much-needed dose of reality: their relationship with the United States is not a one-way street.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took off the gloves and delivered a no-holds-barred message to Pakistan this week, telling the American ally that it must step up its efforts to apprehend Al Qaeda terrorists and demonstrate a real commitment to democracy.

The secretary's blunt remarks, foreign policy experts say, give Pakistan's leaders a much-needed dose of reality: their relationship with the United States is not a one-way street.

America's top diplomat struck an unusually frank tone when she said Pakistan has squandered opportunities to kill or capture Al Qaeda leaders -- including Usama Bin Laden.

"I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to," she told a group of Pakistani journalists in Lahore as she wrapped up her three-day visit to Pakistan. "Maybe that's the case. Maybe they're not gettable. I don't know."

During her trip, Clinton reaffirmed America's pledge to provide $7.5 billion in non-military aid to the troubled nation over the next five years. But she made clear that it will not be a handout.

Clinton said the U.S. wants to partner with Pakistan on more than just the military front, but she made clear that the government in Islamabad will have to be America's partner in tracking down and capturing the terrorists who masterminded the September 11 attacks, among so many others throughout the world.

Clinton defended the bluntness of her remarks in an interview Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America, saying, "Trust is a two-way street. There is trust deficit."

"It will not be sufficient to achieve the level of security that Pakistanis deserve if we don't go after those who are still threatening not only Pakistan, but Afghanistan, and the rest of the world."

Foreign policy analysts said Clinton's words were necessary to convey a tough and clear message, but that the impact on the Pakistanis remains to be seen.

"This is going to bring some realism to the relationship," said Ashley Tellis, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, adding that Clinton's comments are a "useful corrective to the Pakistan overdependency that's at risk of developing."

Tellis said he believes Pakistan knows the whereabouts of Afghan Taliban leaders, and he said the country likely has intelligence on where some Al Qaeda members are hiding.

"They're not pursuing them aggressively enough because they fear that if they apprehend them quickly, they will not remain a target of American interest and partnership," he said.

Clinton's transparent message -- said at the highest level of government -- made clear that the U.S. will accept nothing less than a two-way dialogue, Tellis said.

But others, like Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, a senior fellow at the International Security Program in Washington, say Clinton went too far in suggesting Pakistan is deliberately dodging attempts to locate Al Qaeda.

"To say categorically that Pakistan knows where Al Qaeda leaders are but doesn't want to get them is a little bit of a stretch," Nelson told FoxNews.com, saying Clinton's frustration is understandable, but that the situation is "not as black and white as her comments may indicate."

"If we want them to help us with our security concerns, we have to be willing to help them with their national security concerns," Nelson said.

By Cristina Corbin, FOXNews, October 30, 2009

The secretary of state didn't shy away from sharp questions in bid to alter public opinion.