Try for Madrid II

The prime minister has lost his agenda - realignment - and has yet to find an alternative one.

beilin 88 (photo credit: )
beilin 88
(photo credit: )
The prime minister has lost his agenda - realignment - and has yet to find an alternative one. My concern is that he'll switch the one he had for a right-wing agenda, in partnership with Binyamin Netanyahu or Avigdor Lieberman, and that instead of working to prevent the next war he'll focus on taking steps in order to be ready for it. The second alternative, the alternative I hope he'll pursue, is to prepare for a "Madrid II" - a second international conference - or for another mechanism to facilitate resumed talks with the Palestinians. I'm talking about something substantive here, not merely the kind of public declarations of willingness to talk with [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas and [Lebanese Prime Minister] Fuad Saniora that he's made via TV. I've been speaking with a lot of people lately who believe that a Madrid II mechanism is the right path forward. I hope the prime minister will take it. The writer is the chairman of Meretz.