Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the first direct talks between the two sides since 2008. At the State Department, she set out the same idealistic goals the two leaders and President Barack Obama espoused the night before, but with a more sober read on how tough the task will be.
"The true test of these negotiations will not be their first day and it will not be their last day. It will be all those long days in the middle, when the path toward peace seems hidden and the enemies of peace work to keep it obscured," Clinton said. "This is a time for bold leadership and a time for statesmen who have the courage to make difficult decisions."
Several hours after the talks began, former Sen. George Mitchell, Obama's top envoy for Mideast peace, emerged to say the two leaders had agreed to meet again Sept. 14 and 15, probably in Egypt, and that he and Clinton would be there as well. Talks between Netanyahu and Abbas would then resume every two weeks, while subordinates would meet more frequently, sometimes with U.S. officials present to help.
Mitchell said today's session began with all delegation members and included a "long and productive discussion on a range of issues," before he, the two leaders and Clinton broke for a smaller meeting in Clinton's private office. After that, Netanyahu and Abbas left to meet on their own.
But Mitchell declined to give further details on the issues Abbas and Netanyahu discussed.
"They also agreed that for these negotiations to succeed, they must be kept private and treated with the utmost sensitivity," Mitchell added.
Still, Mitchell said the two parties agreed their next step is to create "a framework agreement for permanent status," essentially a map of the areas where they need to make serious compromises in order to "complete a comprehensive treaty that will end the conflict and establish a lasting peace."
Netanyahu, who promised at the White House that he was ready to make historical compromise, suggested today that this will be difficult.
"True peace, a lasting peace, would be achieved only with mutual and painful concessions from both sides: from the Israeli side, from the Palestinian side -- from my side, and from your side," he told Abbas. "But the people of Israel, and I as their prime minister, are prepared to walk this road and to go a long way -- a long way in a short time -- to achieve a genuine peace that will bring our people security, prosperity and good neighbors -- good neighbors -- to shape a different reality between us."
But Netanyahu emphasized that the obstacles to peace have multiplied since he last worked with Americans to forge peace 12 years ago, during an earlier term as prime minister and under a different U.S. administration.
"We've had the rise of Iran and its proxies, and the rise of missile warfare. And so a peace agreement must take into account security arrangements against these real threats that have been directed against my country," he said, adding that this week's attacks against Israeli settlers in the West Bank were "exceedingly difficult for my people and for me."
Though Netanyahu called the new round of peace talks "an unprecedented opportunity," Abbas offered a more detailed list of the familiar issues that have defeated so many other U.S.-led attempts to bring both sides into a lasting accord.
He asked Netanyahu to renew a moratorium on new settlement construction in the Palestinian territories, probably the first big test of these talks, since the current moratorium expires in three weeks.
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"We call on the Israeli government to move forward with its commitment to end all settlement activities and completely lift the embargo over the Gaza Strip and end all form of incitement," Abbas said, referring to Israeli security restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank that place an onerous burden on daily life there.Speaking on MSNBC, Nabil Shath, a top adviser to Abbas, called the settlement moratorium "a deal breaker."
Abbas also named among the difficult issues Jerusalem, which is claimed by each side as its capital; the release of thousands of Palestinian detainees; and the plight of Palestinian refugees, especially those whose families once lived in what is now Israel proper and who demand the right to return or compensation for what is no longer theirs.
"We will work on all the final-status issues," Abbas said.
He also promised that the Palestinian Authority will do all it can to ensure the security of Israel, but said the Palestinian security forces are "still young" -- able to track down the car of the Hamas militants who killed four Israelis on Tuesday, but not yet the perpetrators themselves.