by David Harris

    JERUSALEM, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli and Palestinian publics are now well aware that there is a new reality on the ground: the Americans believe it is time for the Palestinians to show good faith and come to the negotiating table. This became unmistakably clear during the latest visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the region over the weekend.

    Washington is placing less pressure on the Israelis over the much-hyped settlements issue, while expecting the Palestinians to make the next move. For the best part of the year, the U.S. government under President Barack Obama had sided with the Palestinians in calling for a total freeze of Israel's settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

    Analysts are now trying to understand what brought about the Obama administration's U-turn, and also being examined is the role the media is playing in the labyrinthine peace process.

　　WHY THE CHANGE?

    Although signs of a possible about-face on the part of the United States have been noticeable for weeks, its new position was clarified by Clinton on Saturday night.

    On settlements, "there has never been a precondition. It's always been an issue within the negotiations," Clinton told reporters prior to a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She added that although the legitimacy of Jewish settlements is being questioned, the priority now is to resume the stalled talks.

    These remarks flew in the face of earlier statements by Washington, which demanded that Israel cease all settlement activity, including construction in Eastern Jerusalem, to pave the way for renewed negotiations.

    Israeli analysts admitted that they were at a loss when explaining the reasons for this about-turn. Both Akiva Eldar, a veteran journalist with the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz, and Gadi Wolfsfeld, a political science and communications professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Xinhua on Monday that they could only "speculate" about the causes of the seemingly 180-degree policy shift.

    Perhaps the Obama administration is "keen to begin the two-year countdown" as soon as possible, said Eldar, referring to Obama's stated goal of reaching a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal within 24 months.

    As the Obama team realizes Israel has no intention of compromising on the settlements issue at this stage, it may have decided that in order to speed the process up, it would pressure the Palestinian leadership, he explained, adding that the Americans may have also given the Palestinians guarantees about the settlements and that an international conference might be convened to get the process rolling forward.

    One possible explanation, which Wolfsfeld stressed was pure speculation, is that Washington may be under intense pressure from the Israeli public and domestic pro-Israel groups.

　　MEDIA'S ROLE

    With the peace process bogged down, voices are heard that media has possibly played a mostly negative role in the peace efforts, as the press coverage does not necessarily help the parties to get the job done.

    When former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were heading peace negotiations little more than a year ago, they managed to keep virtually everything from the media. Even though the talks eventually broke down, both sides said that they had managed to keep things very focused because of the privacy they afforded themselves.

    However, Wolfsfeld noted that keeping everything from the media would not help when it comes to the type of situation that the Palestinians, Israelis and Americans are currently facing.

    "I think it's a big exaggeration to say that the media is able to have a major impact on significant political events," he said, stressing that right now events are being affected by political realities.

    In Israel, the Netanyahu administration refuses to back down on the settlements issue. At the same time, the Palestinian leadership insists that resuming negotiations without freezing settlement construction would only be a farce. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is not willing to use any diplomatic force to make the sides budge from their current positions.

    "The meetings fail because the sides are too far apart. The media is just watching and commenting and looking for drama," Wolfsfeld said.

    From a different perspective, Eldar also dismissed the suggestion that sometimes reporters can damage proceedings by pushing the point with the parties or publishing leaked information.

    "It's the role of a journalist in Western society to publish all that he knows because the information doesn't belong to me but rather to the public. It's not for me to tell the public what is appropriate for the public to know and what is not," said Eldar.

    ABBAS IN A BIND

    Following the drastic change, the Palestinian National Authority knows that the Americans expect it to agree to re-launch peace talks with Israel. U.S. special envoy George Mitchell returned to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Monday after travelling to Morocco with Clinton for talks with Arab foreign ministers on Sunday.

    However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is in a tough position at home. He has called for parliamentary and presidential elections to take place on January 24. He knows that any sign of weakness, particularly in the way of concessions to the Israelis, is likely to see him punished at the polls.

    Hours before Clinton's visit to Israel, Abbas held talks with the top U.S. diplomat in the United Arab Emirates, during which he reiterated the stance that Israel must end all settlement construction before the Palestinians could re-enter peace talks.

    Within his own Fatah party, some leading figures are calling for his resignation. The latest twist in the saga surrounding Israeli-Palestinian talks could further isolate the man who the Americans hope will bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.