Egypt: Openings and Blockages

Palestinian reconciliation talks have entered a new phase in Cairo in which participants from various factions have split up into negotiating teams Israel Radio News reports.

These talks might just succeed, James Zogby wrote in the Jordan Times, thanks to a new U.S. openness.

Under the previous administration, Palestinian efforts to reach a reconciliation accord that creatively addressed the Quartet conditions were sabotaged by both US and Israeli intransigence.

Obama, Senator George Mitchell and Clinton indicated that they would be more open to recognising and working with a Palestinian national unity government committed to peacemaking.

This prospect alone, and with it the likelihood of reconstruction aid flowing into Gaza and the West Bank, should serve as an incentive for Palestinian reconciliation.

As Palestinian talks signal the possibility of success, Israelis wonder what happened to their track. Olmert had the chance but missed it, Aluf Benn writes in Ha'aretz.

And Ofer Shelah fumes in Yediot Acharonoth:

From one day to the next this situation is becoming fixed, and hypocrisy seethes all about: Olmert has stopped speaking out publicly, but in practice he has not brought the list for discussion to any decision-making body, and recently led the security cabinet to a decision that linked opening the crossings to Gilad's fate, and blocked the Egyptian attempts to put out a feeler.

But what can Netanyahu accomplish with a new right-wing government, the mother of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit asks:

"We are wary of a right-wing government," Aviva Shalit told Army Radio. "It will take them time to examine the issue and to form a position, something that could take days or months, but for Gilad that is an eternity."