Different sources have it at different durations, but by any measure, this was a whopper of a "crunch meeting." They began the day looking fresh and beaming.
Mme. Secretary joked about the "million pictures of us doing the handshake." One wonders how they appeared emerging after the second marathon to be run in NYC inside of a single week. How many water bottles?
The Jerusalem Post has it at seven plus hours.
Netanyahu, Clinton meeting ends after 7 hours
By HILARY KRIEGER, TOVAH LAZAROFF, JORDANA HORN 11/12/2010 01:08
Marathon bid held to find path to new peace talks; US Secretary of State calls the prime minister a "peacemaker"; Israeli officials call meetings "very serious," say "everything is on the table."
NEW YORK – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held talks that were "friendly and productive" and stressed the importance of continuing direct negotiations in pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, according to a joint statement put out by the two governments Thursday evening.
Laura Rozen at Politico has it a little shorter.
Clinton-Bibi hold marathon six hour meeting
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met for almost six hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Regency Hotel in New York today.
Following their marathon meeting, the Prime Minister's Office and State Department sent out a joint statement, describing "good discussions" that involved "a friendly and productive exchange of views on both sides."
Here is the joint statement as released moments ago by the State Department.
Joint Statement of the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel and The Office of the Secretary of State of The United StatesOffice of the SpokesmanWashington, DCNovember 11, 2010
Begin Text
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Secretary Clinton had a good discussion today, with a friendly and productive exchange of views on both sides. Secretary Clinton reiterated the United States' unshakable commitment to Israel's security and to peace in the region.
The Prime Minister and the Secretary agreed on the importance of continuing direct negotiations to achieve our goals. The Secretary reiterated that "the United States believes that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state, based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements." Those requirements will be fully taken into account in any future peace agreement.
The discussions between the Prime Minister and the Secretary focused on creating the conditions for the resumption of direct negotiations aimed at producing a two-state solution. Their teams will work closely together in the coming days toward that end.
Well, that does not tell us anything that we have not seen before. One thing we can surmise is that this was a tough meeting and all the issues were on the table. Beyond that, we cannot really guess. Given Mme. Secretary's meeting yesterday with Egyptian FM Gheit and her teleconference with Palestinian PM Fayyad, points of view from those parties were surely represented. We can only hope that reason will prevail in the best interests of everyone involved.
