Seasoned Negotiator to Serve as a Mideast Envoy
WASHINGTON — President Obama moved swiftly to engage on the Middle East on Wednesday, calling Israeli and Arab leaders on his first morning in office and preparing to appoint a seasoned peace negotiator and former senator, George J. Mitchell, as his special emissary to the region.
... He is viewed as a diplomatic heavyweight who may bring more balance to Washington’s relationships in the region.
“He’s neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel and an adviser to the Clinton administration. “He’s, in a sense, neutral.”
Any Irish-American worth his Guiness knows that this guy is a miracle-worker.
Since 1995, he has been active in the Northern Ireland peace process as U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. Mitchell first led a commission that established the principles on non-violence to which all parties in Northern Ireland had to adhere and subsequently chaired the all-party peace negotiations, which led to the Belfast Peace Agreement signed on Good Friday 1998 (known since as the Good Friday Agreement). Mitchell's personal intervention with the parties was crucial to the success of the talks. ... For his involvement in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations, Mitchell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom[5] (on March 17, 1999) and the Liberty Medal (on July 4, 1998).
I was sure that the only thing that would bring peace to Ulster was a complete lack of people left for one side or the other to kill.
Not unlike the Israelis and the Palestinians...
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