"...a US deferral to Israeli demands of 'no preconditions', but at the same time no retreat by the US on its own position..."

Seven thoughts and take-aways from the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that got underway in Washington this week.

1) Defining the goal:

The Obama administration more clearly defined the goal to be achieved in one year of talks: reaching a framework agreement on all the core issues that can then be followed .... “more detailed than a declaration of principles, but … less than a full-fledged treaty. Its purpose is to establish the fundamental compromises necessary to enable the parties to then flesh out and complete a comprehensive agreement that will end the conflict and establish a lasting peace.”

2) Process more than substance, for now:

Netanyahu and Abbas agreed in face to face talks Thursday to a process for trying to reach a framework agreement in the coming year, including to meet about every two weeks. Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell argued Thursday, for his part, that process and substance are interconnected....

3) But one former Israeli diplomat said agreement on the procedural front only temporarily masks that the substantive gaps may not be able to be closed.

Flowery speeches and handshakes are a good beginning, “but they cannot hide the plain fact that the gaps on substantive issues are irreconcilable,” former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas told POLITICO Thursday. ......."Netanyahu cannot offer the 'Clinton parameters' of a decade ago, and Abbas cannot accept less. It's that simple. Tragic, but simple."....

4) Obama defines the U.S. role in the negotiations as that of “participant”:

What’s the significance?

"The role of 'participant' means the U.S. will be in the room, not like Bush and Condi, who stayed outside the room, except on one occasion," the former senior U.S. official said. "So this is an upgrade, not a downgrade."

5) Obama tells the parties that the United States will not impose its own peace plan if the talks run aground.....

6) Obama got the atmospherics and environment right, argued former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.).

“With a jaundiced eye, I think the first attempt was an unqualified success in terms of establishing the atmospherics that allow people – reasonable people – to have hope....

7) The Obama administration seems to have found a diplomatic work-around for separating U.S. positions from the terms of reference for the negotiations, which Israel has insisted should have no preconditions.

The former senior U.S. official noted that "Obama did refer to the [territory occupied in 1967]/1967 lines - reiterating Bush language." But he did it, the former senior U.S. official noted, not in his public comments with the Middle East leaders at the Wednesday White House dinner, but in his separate Rose Garden remarks....

The implication is of a U.S. deferral to Israeli demands that there be no preconditions to the direct negotiations, but at the same time no retreat by the U.S. on its own position on the matter...."