"If we can get a settlement to take them out of Uganda to get a good education, to get a good life, I think that can help them forget what happened in the past.
"The ultimate goal should be a settlement and to get it done with.
Mr. Emanuel, a political operative in two White Houses and former Democratic member of the House, has dismissed suggestions that he has been racing to get a settlement to erase a political complication amid the presidential campaign.
Already, Israel had forced Mr. Obama to backtrack last year on his early insistence on a temporary settlement freeze to get peace talks going — lest the settlements become a way of taking territory off the negotiating table.
"The agency negotiating a settlement is happy to get a big number, the company would prefer a lower number and there is no one from the IRS saying, 'Wait a minute, if this is really intended to be a penalty, let's treat it as such,' " Fleischer said.
By not renewing his demand that Israel halt settlement construction to get a new round of talks started, Mr. Obama was, in effect, conceding that years of careful study about how to nudge the peace process forward had failed to produce tangible results.
Of course, he can always reduce his slate at the 11th hour or try to reach a settlement with Yahoo to get some board seats.
Aluf Benn advises President Obama to "speak directly to Israelis" in order to garner greater support among them for the president's call for a settlement freeze and to get the Israeli-Arab peace process moving.
If you want to build in a settlement, you have to get your plans approved, and then, when you are ready to implement the plans, you have to get the actual construction approved.
For its part, the pro-peace camp says that the situation in Egypt means that there may be only a narrow window to get a settlement negotiated and that a new urgency is required.
