“Bahrain was a step in the right direction,” special US envoy to the Mideast peace process Jason Greenblatt said July 1 at the annual conference of the Institute for Policy and Strategy of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. He was quick to clarify, however, “We are clearly not declaring a solution, yet.”
Israelis and Palestinians have long ceased holding their breath in anticipation/concern that Greenblatt and his associates will advance a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and end decades of bloodshed. After all, on that very same day, the special envoy, along with US Ambassador David Friedman, were guests of honor at a ceremony in East Jerusalem inaugurating an archaeological tunnel running underneath Palestinian homes. Both men assisted in breaking open a wall that was blocking the tunnel’s entrance. In fact, this controversial ceremony sounded the death knell for resolution of the conflict and provided a sure-fire recipe for bloodshed. Also present were Elan Carr, the US envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, and the US ambassadors to Portugal, France and Denmark.