| The Israeli press on Sunday greeted the announcement of renewed direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with a wave of scepticism born of the sides' repeated failures to reach agreement in the past. The mass-circulation Yediot Ahronot recalled that since a 1993 "Declaration of Principles" setting out the goals of a peace agreement, the two sides have been engaged in direct talks for all but the past 20 months without achieving those aims. "Many words have passed between the sides over the past 17 years," columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in an accompanying analysis. "And between the words there were not a few dead and wounded, and still there is no peace agreement." The invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to open a fresh round of talks next month in Washington was announced on Friday by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. |