WASHINGTON — After 18 months of faltering efforts to negotiate peace in the Middle East, President Barack Obama is drastically increasing his personal stake — and his political risk — by hosting a new round of Israeli-Palestinian talks this week in Washington.
Obama personally helped to coax Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to take part in a ceremonial initiation of negotiations at the White House on Wednesday, to be followed by a resumption of peace talks Thursday.
From the beginning, some advisers have questioned the wisdom of linking the president so visibly with such an intractable conflict. But Obama has stepped up his personal investment over the summer, holding face-to-face meetings and follow-up phone calls with Abbas and Netanyahu, beckoning them to his negotiating table.
Now, in an atmosphere of widespread pessimism, many insiders and outside experts believe that, if the talks remain on track, it will be because Obama is personally applying pressure to push them forward.
“This time, the White House has to be more active, more robust and more devoted,” said Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s ambassador to the United States.
Obama is immersing himself in the process. He will hold one- on-one meetings with Abbas and Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Wednesday, followed by a White House dinner that includes former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Netanyahu and Abbas will begin talks the next day at the State Department with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Deep presidential engagement will be a sign, in itself, of progress,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
A key question this week will be whether Obama can help to cultivate the needed personal and diplomatic chemistry between Abbas and Netanyahu, whose relationship has been long but rocky.
