U.S. Mideast Envoy Resigns After 2 Years of Frustration

President Obama’s chief envoy to the Middle East, former Senator George J. Mitchell Jr., is leaving that post after two mostly futile years pressing Israelis and Palestinians to make peace, administration officials said on Friday.

Mr. Obama was expected to issue a statement later in the day. The news comes ahead of a critical week in which the president is to deliver a much-anticipated speech on policy toward the Middle East in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden and revolutions in the Arab world, and then to meet with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom the White House has had fraught relations.

The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, was asked repeatedly at his daily briefing with reporters about the awkward timing of Mr. Mitchell’s departure, and whether it symbolizes a sense of defeat over prospects for negotiating a two-state solution between Israel and Palestinian officials.

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He noted that the Middle East has always been an “extraordinarily hard issue.” He added, “But the fact is that it’s important and the president is committed to working on it and the fact he’s having these meetings is proof of that.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/world/middleeast/14mitchell.html

shit I'd be amazed if I could stand a week trying to broker anything between the Israelis and the Palestinians without jumping out a high window in frustration.