For the first time in almost two years, the Israelis and Palestinians are holding high-level peace talks. The talks are taking place in Washington DC, under the supervision of US President Barack Obama. One thing is for sure, there is a limit to how long President Obama is prepared to mediate, says Middle-East expert Bertus Hendriks.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the President of the Palestinian territories Mahmoud Abbas his "partner in peace" and added that the recent attacks on Israelis would not block negotiations. President Abbas has called on Israel to stop the construction of settlements on the West Bank. He says the time has come for an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The plague
The peace talks looked like they were entering troubled waters after recent comments by an Israeli rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The rabbi cursed Mr Abbas with every disease under the sun, including the plague. Bertus Hendriks, former Radio Netherlands Worldwide Middle East specialist, who currently works for the Clingendael Institute says:

"The rabbi is extremely influential. He is the spiritual inspiration for the Shas Party, a party for orthodox Jews, mainly from eastern countries. And that is an essential partner in Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition government. The man has huge prestige. I have been to meetings a few years ago during elections in Israel where the rabbi was present. You had the feeling that God himself had entered the room when you saw how his supporters reacted."

According to Mr Hendriks, it was embarrassing for the Netanyahu government that this rabbi in particular made his comments on the eve of the talks. Prime Minister Netanyahu has also distanced himself from them.

Difficult issues
During the talks all the important issues that the two parties have put off in recent years will be discussed, thinks Mr Hendriks.

* A freeze on the construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and the future borders of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians say: of course we want to see a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, when Israel first occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Israelis think differently.

* Then there is the matter of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is occupied, but Israel has unilaterally annexed it.

* The right for Palestinian refugees to return. Mr Hendriks thinks that the Palestinians realise that it is no longer a realistic option to exercise this right completely. But they are demanding at least recognition of the right to return:

"It is a very sensitive issue for Palestinians. The recognition of the injustice done to them is extremely important. Then in the most optimistic scenario, a limited number of these people could return - for reuniting families and that sort of thing. It will be a huge job to do this well, and to do it within one year. I am quite pessimistic about this, and I am not the only one."

Obama's reputation
The chance of success in Washington has become greater now that President Obama has linked his reputation on the issue. But Mr Hendriks has his doubts about that too, partly because of the economic malaise and the impending defeat in the mid-term elections.

In the beginning, President Obama was clearly getting opposition from the Israelis. According to Mr Hendriks, the Netanyahu government seriously provoked the new administration. During a visit to Israel earlier this year by Vice President Joe Biden it announced that 1600 new homes would be built in occupied Jerusalem. Washington was furious. And Israel is now plucking the fruits of these tactics, says Mr Hendriks:

"Mr Netanyahu has just held his guns. We have to say that he has won as far as resuming the peace talks is concerned, because everything is being done on his conditions. President Obama is not putting most of the pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu, but on President Abbas who is being dragged reluctantly to Washington while his own supporters oppose the trip."

Bertus Hendriks does not know whether the US president is prepared to give all he has in order to see the talks succeed. He should be putting the Israelis under pressure, because most of the concessions will have to come from them.