Its difficult at best to figure out what is really going on in the latest round of Middle East Peace talks.  For the past 24 hours, both sides seem to be actually abiding by their pledge to keep their mouths’ shut.  While keeping one’s mouth shut is a often a norm in corporate merger negotiations right up until the end, typically the negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders leak like a sieve. Just recently a Palestinian leader called Prime Minister Netanyahu a “nut job,” and the Israeli Foreign Minister said he didn’t think there would be peace in the next two-generations.

The latest round are the triathlon of talks.  Secretary of State Clinton flew into Sharm El-Sheik Egypt Tuesday morning to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas. Then everything moved to Jerusalem for talks Wednesday night and Thursday she heads to Ramallah for a one-on-one meeting with Abbas.  On the flight down to Sharm yesterday morning the Israeli delegation seemed to be chatting up a storm even while one official admonished the Palestinians for running to the press when they didn’t like things.  As the mood brightened in Sharm, nobody wanted to talk to the media. Even “off the record” conversations were hard to come-by and those were vague save a few largely symbolic tid-bits passed out.  Today, most everyone has been keeping quiet  and relying on US Peace Envoy Sen. George Mitchell to give his usually rosy briefings at the end of the days discussion.  “To me it is been extremely impressive to see both leaders engaging in this fashion. They are serious.  They mean business. They do have differences, we believe they can be over come and we are going to remain support them with patience,  perseverance and determination,” he said. Reading the ‘tea leaves’ is encouraging though.  The talks, especially today’s, seem to be running longer than scheduled.  Last night Abbas, Clinton and Netanyahu pushed their departure back by a few hours to have another unscheduled meeting after lunch and those “in the know” seem to have a slight bounce to their step.  However, you can often tell more by what isn’t said than what is.  Despite days of talking about it and multiple meetings of the negotiating teams, there is not an agreement to the “settlement issue—only “progress”. The Palestinians have  yet to withdraw their threat to leave the talks unless Israel continues its i freeze on building in the West Bank when it expires on September 26^th.  The Israelis say a continuation of the freeze is politically impossible.