Prodding the international community, President Barack Obama called Friday “for all of us to redouble our efforts” toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states. “The moment is now for us to act,” he declared. Alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel following his Mideast trip, Obama said: “The United States can't force peace upon the parties.” But he said America has “at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart.” The president announced he was dispatching special envoy George J. Mitchell back to the region next week to follow up on his speech in Cairo a day earlier in which he called for both Israelis and Palestinians to give ground in the standoff. Obama says Israel must live up to commitments it made under the so-called “Road Map” peace outline to stop constructing settlements and the Palestinians must control violence-inciting acts and statements. Fresh from visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Obama said that while regional powers and the entire international community must help achieve peace, responsibility ultimately falls to Israelis and Palestinians to reach an accord. Merkel, for her part, promised to cooperate on this long-sought goal. She said the two leaders discussed a time frame for a peace process but did not elaborate. “I think that, with the new American government and the president, there is a truly unique opportunity to revive this peace process or, let us put this very cautiously, this process of negotiations,” Merkel said. Added Obama: “I think the moment is now for us to act on what we all know to be the truth, which is each side is going to have to make some difficult compromises.” He renewed his call for Israel to halt West Bank settlement activity and follow through on such previously made commitments, adding: “I recognize the very difficult politics in Israel of getting that done and I'm very sympathetic to how hard that will be.” He also pressed Palestinians anew to dial back anti-Israel rhetoric, saying that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “has made progress on this issue, but not enough.” While Obama did not address peace-process benchmarks, he told international reporters Thursday in Egypt: “I don't want to impose an artificial timeline ... I want to have a sense of movement and progress.” Obama also said he didn't seek any commitments from Germany to take a dozen prisoners when the US closes its prison Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
