A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

Aug 18, 2009 Mubarak in Washington

President Obama met with President Mubarak of Egypt today. This was the first time Mubarak traveled to Washington in eight years. Last night, Mubarak made clear to Charlie Rose he did not visit Washington all these years because of the differences he had with the Bush Administration.

Both Presidents made positive comments on progress being made and steps that Israel has agreed to. Obama stated:

"There has been movement in the right direction and I came in from the start saying that all parties concerned had to take some concrete steps to restart serious negotiations to resolve what has been a longstanding conflict that is not good for the Israeli people and is not good for its neighbors. And I think that the Israeli government has taken discussions with us very seriously. George Mitchell has been back and forth repeatedly; he will be heading back out there next week. And my hope is that we are going to see not just movement from the Israelis, but also from the Palestinians around issues of incitement and security, from Arab states that show their willingness to engage Israel."

Mubarak then went on to state "I would like to add on what President Obama has just said, and I say that we are trying and working on this goal to bring the two parties to sit together and to get something from the Israeli party and to get something from the Palestinian party. If we perhaps can get them to sit together, we will help.

And also, I have contacts with the Israeli party. I have received calls and contacts with the Prime Minister of Israel, with the Head of the State, and also with the Minister of Defense. We are speaking in a good manner and we are moving into the right direction. But the two parties need to sit together, and this then will give hope that there is a possibility of finding a solution to the Palestinian issue, because it has been ongoing since 60 years."

I have almost completed reading "Myths, Illustions and Peace" by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky. I will do a full review of the book later this week, as well as outline their major points (which I think are very important). In short, suffice to say, it looks to me like the Obama administration is following the recommendations made in the book by Ross and Makovsky about the Palestinian Arab conflict in the book to the letter.