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Words of cautious optimism continued to be voiced this week as both Israeli and Palestinian leaders prepare for the next round of peace talks Tuesday, Sept. 14.

“I believe that we should make every effort to reach an historic compromise for peace over the coming year,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his New Year’s message to the diaspora.

“I guarantee one thing: This will not be easy. But as Israel’s prime minister, it is my responsibility to make every effort to forge a lasting peace with our neighbors.”

President Barack Obama presides over a working dinner Sept. 1, the night before the start of peace talks. photo/white house/pete souza

In his Hebrew Rosh Hashanah greeting to Israelis, Netanyahu warned, “I am telling you this is an attempt because there is no assurance of success. There are many obstacles, there are many skeptics, there are many reasons for skepticism.”

Meanwhile Abbas held fast to his demand that Netanyahu extend a partial moratorium on settlement building past Sept. 26, which Netanyahu has rejected.

Officials on both sides were suggesting that they may be able to overcome the hurdle.

“We are going to try to find other means to incentivize them to stay at the negotiating table,” Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, told Jewish leaders in a Sept. 3 conference call.

An emerging tactic was to focus on the issues that unite the parties. In that vein, a P.A. official delivered what perhaps was the most stinging rebuke of Iran’s government to date, aligning the Palestinian Authority with Israel and the United States in perceiving the real regional threat as emerging from Tehran. The Palestinians were outraged at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for dismissing the talks as meaningless.

“The one who does not represent the Iranian people, who falsified election results, who oppressed the Iranian people and stole authority, has no right to speak about Palestine, its president or its representatives,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said Sept. 4, according to the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency, citing the official P.A. news agency Wafa.

In such slow, almost excruciating increments, talks between Israelis and Palestinians took on the dimensions of counseling sessions moderated by the United States.

Heading into a White House dinner Sept. 1 with President Barack Obama and the Jordanian and Egyptian leaders, Netanyahu and Abbas outlined their bottom lines: security and recognition for the Jewish state, settlement halts and final-status negotiations for Abbas.

By mid-morning Sept. 2, when they met in the upper reaches of the State Department beneath the watchful eye of a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, it was clear that some mediation had taken place in the cavernous room named for the first secretary of state.

Netanyahu was more forthcoming about final-status talks, if not settlements. Abbas was just as adamant about Israeli concessions but was more forthcoming about understanding Israel’s security needs.

The leaders will meet Sept. 14 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik and every two weeks after that.

Special envoy George Mitchell said the first goal was to reach a “framework agreement” that would outline the necessary compromises, and then work out the details that would flesh out a full agreement. Setting a cordial tone was key, he said.

Critics have said that lip service and photo ops may be the only achievement to come from this summit and the negotiations that follow.

For the time being, merely holding a meeting to launch talks gives each leader something to take back home. Netanyahu can argue to the world and the Israeli public that he is interested in serious negotiations. If there are gains for the Palestinians, Abbas will be able to show  that they can wring concessions from Israel by talking rather than by violence — the Hamas method.

Abbas, whose remarks at the White House dinner constituted a laundry list of Palestinian plaints, was expansive at the news conference in acknowledging Israel’s security needs, especially in the wake of two terrorist attacks in two days that left four Israeli civilians dead, including a pregnant woman.

“We not only condemned them but also followed on the perpetrators and found the car that was used, and arrested those who sold and bought the car,” he said, touting the performance of a Palestinian security service he said was still “young.”

“Security is of essence, it is vital for both of us. We cannot allow for anyone to do anything that would undermine your security and our security.”

Abbas gave no ground on Netanyahu’s demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, telling him that it was enough that in 1993 the Palestinians recognized Israel. Netanyahu holds that recognition of a Jewish claim is key to ending the Palestinian culture of incitement, which he says is a cause of terrorism.

“In this document we give enough to show our intentions are good,” Abbas said.