Rice gets off beaten track of Mideast diplomacy

By Arshad Mohammed

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Bethlehem this week, getting off the beaten diplomatic track to try to convince Israelis and Palestinians Washington is serious about its push for peace.

While meeting top Israeli and Palestinian officials, Rice is also seeing ordinary citizens on both sides to try to quell skepticism about the Bush administration's commitment to Middle East peace after six years of what critics view as neglect.

"I wanted, in my own voice, to be able to say to as many people as possible, the United States sees the establishment of a Palestinian state ... as absolutely essential to the future of not just Palestinians and Israelis, but also to the Middle East, and indeed to American interests," she told reporters.

"The United States sees this as important from a geostrategic, diplomatic sense but also sees the human side of this," she later added. "In the final analysis, it's about them. It's about Israeli citizens and Palestinian citizens living without fear and living with a certain dignity."

Rice came to the region to shuttle between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to lay the groundwork for a peace conference the United States plans to host in Annapolis, Maryland this year.

Her trip to Bethlehem will include talks with members of Palestinian civil society -- typically academics, professionals and members of civic groups. She is holding similar meetings with Israelis and with religious figures.

"It's a recognition that the problems in Arab-Israeli peacemaking are at least as much political as they are diplomatic," Jon Alterman, an analyst at Washington's CSIS think tank, said of Rice reaching out to a wider circle. "What concerns me about the Annapolis meeting is that neither leader has a consensus behind him to make far-reaching concessions."

Rice has also met a wide array of Israeli politicians, including two prominent members of right-wing parties that are resistant to territorial compromises but whose support is vital to maintaining Olmert's coalition.