George Mitchell has born to an Irish father, a janitor, and an Arab Lebanese mother, Mary Saad, in 1933 in Maine.  He served in the military, went to law school, and soon thereafter chose public service.  He became a federal judge after losing the race for governor in Maine, but was subsequently appointed a senator when Edmund Muskie resigned.  He has been one of this nation’s leading Democrats, serving as Senate Majority Leader for the Democrats from 1989-1995.  In 1995, Mitchell began to work tirelessly for peace in his father’s homeland of Ireland.  Peace in that region was largely achieved under his tutelage as US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland.  Mitchell went on to lead the Walt Disney Corporation and to be general manager of the Red Sox before being called back to public service.  Now, at Obama’s request, he turns his attention to the region where his mother was born—as US Special Envoy to the Middle East. 

Israeli Leader Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu

George Mitchell will now have to square off with Hamas (which the US designates a terrorist organization), Fatah (the more moderate Arab-Palestinian group of the now deceased Yasser Arafat), and Israel’s newly elected, longtime political figure and head of the Likud Party, Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, though born in what is now Israel, lived in the United States (his father was a professor at Cornell in New York) and has been a staunch American Ally.    Nevertheless, Netanyahu is a hard-liner who has opposed an independent Palestinian State.  His approach to peace between Israel and Palestine can be summed up in his own words: “Right now, the peace talks are based only one thing, only on peace talks. It makes no sense at this point to talk about the most contractible issue. It’s Jerusalem or bust, or right of return or bust. That has led to failure and is likely to lead to failure again….We must weave an economic peace alongside a political process. That means that we have to strengthen the moderate parts of the Palestinian economy by handing rapid growth in those areas, rapid economic growth that gives a stake for peace for the ordinary Palestinians.” Unfortunately, this will be difficult at best because now, when creating an economic link between Israel and Palestine would take billions of dollars, those dollars are simply no longer on the table. 

George Mitchell will have to save his best performance for last (this is likely the final chapter in Mitchell’s book of accomplishments as he is 86 years old) if he is to bring together these disparate parties and hand President Barak Obama a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine.