Hillarysworld

This is a significant development and a shift in Pres.Obama's initial approach. 

The article does not credit Hillary Clinton but this is the article that I found which was most comprehensive in all other respects. Where you read Jim Jones, you can read Hillary Clinton right along with it.. they worked together on this. 

If you find a good article that has Hillary Clinton involvement on it in regard to this shift in strategy, please post. Thanks.

"

Obama Weighs New Peace Plan for Middle East

By David Ignatius, April 7, 2010

WASHINGTON -- President Obama is "seriously considering" proposing an American peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to two top administration officials.

"Everyone knows the basic outlines of a peace deal," said one of the senior officials, citing the agreement that was nearly reached at Camp David in 2000 and in subsequent negotiations. He said that an American plan, if launched, would build upon past progress on such issues as borders, the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. The second senior official said that "90 percent of the map would look the same" as what has been agreed in previous bargaining.

The American peace plan would be linked with the issue of confronting Iran, which is Israel's top priority, explained the second senior official. He described the issues as two halves of a single strategic problem: "We want to get the debate away from settlements and East Jerusalem and take it to a 30,000-feet level that can involve Jordan, Syria and other countries in the region," as well as the Israelis and Palestinians.

"Incrementalism hasn't worked," continued the second official, explaining that the U.S. cannot simply allow the Palestinian problem to keep festering -- providing fodder for Iran and other extremists. "As a global power with global responsibilities, we have to do something." He said the plan would "take on the absolute requirements of Israeli security and the requirements of Palestinian sovereignty in a way that makes sense."

The White House is considering detailed interagency talks to frame the strategy and form a political consensus for it. The second official likened the process to the review that produced Obama's strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said the administration could formally launch the Middle East initiative by this fall.

White House interest in proposing a peace plan has been growing in recent months, but it accelerated after the blow-up that followed the March 9 Israeli announcement, during Vice President Joe Biden's visit, that Israel would build 1,600 new housing units in east Jerusalem. U.S. officials began searching for bolder ways to address Israeli and Palestinian concerns, rather than continuing the same stale debates.

Obama's attention was focused by a March 24 meeting at the White House with six former national security advisers. The group has been meeting privately every few months at the request of Gen. Jim Jones, who currently holds the job. In the session two weeks ago, the group had been talking about global issues for perhaps an hour when Obama walked in and asked what was on people's minds.

[SNIP]

Support for a new approach was also said to have been expressed by Sandy Berger and Colin Powell, who served as national security advisers for Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, respectively. The consensus view was apparently shared by the other two attendees, Frank Carlucci and Robert C. McFarlane from the Reagan years.

Obama's embrace of a peace plan would reverse the administration's initial strategy, which was to try to coax concessions from the Israelis and Palestinians, with the U.S. offering "bridging proposals" later. This step-by-step process was favored by George Mitchell, the president's special representative for the Middle East, who believed a similar approach had laid the groundwork for his breakthrough in Northern Ireland peace talks.

The fact that Obama is weighing the peace plan marks his growing confidence in Jones, who has been considering this approach for the past year. But the real strategist in chief is Obama himself. If he decides to launch a peace plan, it would mark a return to the ambitious themes the president sounded in his June 2009 speech in Cairo.

Continues @ RCP

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The article fails to credit SoS Hillary Clinton, but I think she was very much involved in the creation of this strategy.

If you find a more comprehensive article on this shift in strategy that credits Hillary please post. Thanks.