....While well-intentioned, the US has missed an opportunity to establish the basis for genuine progress toward a grounded and resilient post-summit Palestinian-Israeli negotiations process through failing to focus the attentions of the parties in the lead-up on the mechanisms required for successful bilateral negotiations.
The conference has wasted considerable time, delaying the start of actual negotiations by several months as the two parties fenced, completely unnecessarily, over how to present key issues in the conflict in the final summit declaration.
With the sporadic involvement of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other US officials contributing to the failure of both parties to find common ground, those issues, which should have been left to full negotiations - Jerusalem, borders and refugees - have been unnecessarily thrust to the forefront of the pre-summit debate.....
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