Clinton in the Middle East

Sometimes I feel the United States sees itself as the ultimate saviour of the world and therefore, that he needs to be involved in every single conflict and act as (or sometimes just pretend to be) the wise peacekeeper. Like in marital problems it is better to have no third-person participating, sometimes world conflicts need the US to step aside. Of course, if the problems within the marriage evolve into overwhelming verbal and physical abuse, there will be a need of intermediaries... and then, the world needs the United States to use its power of a dominant nation and do its best to stop the quarrel. However, being the US the key for the cease of conflict, it is extrasupermegaimportant to perform its peacekeeper role with neutrality and non-biased political movements. Really hard to do, considering the US is another country, not an alien arbiter, and so it will always have its own interests. Knowing this reality, it is crucial that, at least, it presents itself committed to the end of conflict, but always minding the power of the government's words and its consequences. Why am I saying all this? Palestinians are now accusing Clinton of slowing down and damaging peace talks in the Middle East. Their statement comes once Clinton began to praise Israel for its progressive attitude concerning the negotiations with Palestinians and the restrain concerning the Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory. Mohammed Nazzal, member of Hamas said in relation: "The Arab and Muslim people know well that the U.S. position is biased." Palestinians are urging Israel to freeze the expasion of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Rage has grown for Israel had already accepted to halt the settlement activity back in 2003, but the action never occured. And you know, none of them respects the other's territory, this problem will go on forever. Moreover, Saeb Erekat said Palestine will refuse to continue any further peace negotiations unless the Israel redirects its "natural growth" back to Israeli territory, outside from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. I have never really trusted numbers (being a human invention, numbers can fool you any time), but according to some information given on a newspaper, there are about 500 000 Israeli settlers both the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Persuaded by my skepticism, I decided to look around if there was any other number and I found in the World Factbook that there are 187 000 settlers in the West Bank and around 177 000 in East Jerusalem. Notice that even if you add these two last numbers, you do not obtain the first number (500 000) and in the real world, more than 100 000 settlers really make a difference. So who am I to believe? And even though Clinton praised Israel for its commitment, it seems that Israel will not limit itself in East Jerusalem and that will obviously not please Palestinian leaders. Clinton also told Abbas that it was impossible for the United States to persuade Israel to immeadiately freeze the construction of settlements. Saeb Erekat expressed himself again with the following words: "If America cannot get Israel to implement a settlement freeze, what chance do Palestinians have of reaching agreement with Israel on permanent status issues?" See the importance of the US in this conflict? :)

More information:
http://dailyme.com/story/2009110100002405/palestinians-accuse-clinton-hurting-peace-talks.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1256799053633
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/internacional/64186.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html