Mitchell offers guarded praise for Israel

If you print out the transcript of George Mitchell's press conference -- only his second of the year -- it's an 8-page document. Mitchell, remarkably, manages to say almost nothing in those eight pages, which perhaps helps to explain his longevity in official Washington.

That said, two observations. First: In his opening statement, Mitchell goes to great lengths to praise the Israeli government for its unilateral declaration of a partial 10-month settlement freeze.

But you can also see him straining to avoid language like "unprecedented," the word which prompted an international furor when secretary of state Hillary Clinton used it earlier this month.

The policy announced by Netanyahu today is almost the same one Clinton praised on Nov. 2. (One notable difference: Netanyahu's earlier offer was reportedly for a "secret" settlement freeze, which the Israeli government would not publicly acknowledge.)

One of the reporters -- Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's diplomatic correspondent -- noticed the similarity between Mitchell's remarks and Clinton's. Here's Mitchell's response:

Well, first, I said that this has never happened before, and if you look in the dictionary, that is the definition of unprecedented.

[...] Nothing like this occurred during the Bush Administration. From 2000 to 2008, there were new housing construction starts on nearly 20,000 new housing units, 9,000 of them between 2004 and 2008. In the moratorium just announced by the Government of Israel, there will be no new housing construction starts during the 10-month period. None. There will be no approval of any housing projects during the 10-month moratorium. None. No Israeli Government has ever taken this step, and nothing remotely like this occurred during the Bush Administration.

It's silly to focus simply on one word, of course. Arabs weren't angry that Clinton said "unprecedented"; they were angry that her remarks seemed to praise Netanyahu for making concessions and herald a retreat from demanding a full settlement freeze. Mitchell, I think, did a better job of speaking to both sides. (Indeed, Al-Jazeera, in its story about Netanyahu's offer (عربي), notes that Mitchell insisted the U.S. still wants a complete settlement freeze.)

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