From Ireland to Israel

by Patrick Appel

Daniel Levy writes about George Mitchell – who is famous for negotiating peace in Northern Ireland –  being appointed to special envoy for Middle East peace. Levy sounds hopeful:

Ironically, his first challenges may comes less from the Israelis and Palestinians that he will meet on his travels and more from the skeptics and naysayers in the Middle East peace industry back home in Washington D.C. He should expect to hear lots of "it can't be done" refrains, but as Mitchell himself noted speaking in Israel just last month: "In negotiations which led up to that agreement [Good Friday agreement] we had seven hundred days of failure and one day of success." New thinking is needed and a determination to create that one day of success for Israel/Palestine.