Mitchell's wish are not necessarily going to be Israel's command

TIME Magazine, here

".....Mitchell's wish is not necessarily going to be Israel's command. Outgoing Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert is refusing to open the Gaza borders, despite calls by the international aid community to lift the 19-month long blockade.He drew a line connecting Palestinian anger to the spread of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and that line is still there, only more indelible.

That doesn't mean, of course, that the new Israeli premier — probably Netanyahu — is going to listen. During his campaign this past week, he claimed that he would allow West Bank settlements to expand. (Last year, according to the Israeli human rights group Peace Now, settlements grew by 69% over the previous year.) If Netanyahu insists on refusing to close down the settlements, it may be the Israelis that the Obama Administration and Mitchell find themselves lecturing."