President Obama to hold trilateral meeting with Netanyahu and Abbas in New York

".... getting Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas in the same room is clearly symbolically important and something of a breakthrough to a protracted stalemate, that had parties figuring out how to blame someone else should the three-way meeting not come about.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs' announcement from Saturday evening below:

On Tuesday, September 22, President Obama will host a trilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The trilateral meeting will be immediately preceded by bilateral meetings between President Obama and the two leaders. These meetings will continue the efforts of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Special Envoy George Mitchell to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of negotiations, and to create a positive context for those negotiations so that they can succeed. 

"It is another sign of the President's deep commitment to comprehensive peace that he wants to personally engage at this juncture, as we continue our efforts to encourage all sides to take responsibility for peace and to create a positive context for the resumption of negotiations," said Special Envoy Mitchell..."