By Zhu Lei
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell did not find welcoming ears this time in nudging new Israeli leaders to accept that a Palestinian state alongside Israel is the only way to end the Mideast conflict.
During his third trip to the region since nominated by US President Barack Obama late January, Mitchell spared no efforts in advocating the two-state solution in solving the decades-old conflict.
But Mitchell's first meetings with top leaders of the new Israeli government since it was sworn in on March 31 highlighted the split between the US and Israeli peace policy with the Palestinians.
The traditionally hawkish Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who has paid little lip service to the peace plan since assuming power, said in a statement that the creation of a Palestinian state at the current stage is premature and would play into the hands of Gaza Hamas rulers.
He also conditioned the start of talks on the two-state solution on Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, a demand the Palestinians have rejected for fear of that such a move would virtually deprive the Palestinian refugees of their right to return.
The premier leading a right-leaning government recently made repeated pledges to advance the peace process, but has so far danced around the two-state principle.
The firebrand Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, before Mitchell's eyes, told reporters that "new ideas and a new approach " are needed at the current circumstance, criticizing the " traditional approach" which has yielded few results.
Those counterpoints are all but the same messages that Netanyahu and Lieberman have sent during their first 48 hours in office, which becomes a fast-moving concern for the Obama administration, analysts said.
The new Israeli government has adopted a domestic and foreign policy almost entirely opposed to that of the United States, said Amjad Atallah, co-director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation think tank.
The policy differences concerning Israeli-Arab peace center on two issues -- Israeli domestic policy toward its Arab minority, which accounts for about 20 percent of Israel's population and Israel's intent to occupy the Palestinian West Bank and Syrian Golan Heights indefinitely, according to Atallah.
Given its line-up and policies, the new Israeli administration is seemingly ready to go head-to-head with the Obama team and it is not going to be subtle, the expert said.
