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Is Annapolis the Beginning of the Beginning?

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For the first time since the Clinton Administration, Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to resume negotiations. We hear about a framework for peace and the prospects for success or failure. Also, patients are outliving doctors' expectations, and Medicare wants millions of dollars reimbursed from providers of hospice.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Main Topic

Israeli and Palestinian Leaders Agree to Negotiating Plan ()

There's been growing skepticism that Israel and the Palestinians could even agree on a framework for resuming Middle East peace negotiations. But today, after a lapse of seven years, President Bush said the time is right. With Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas at his side today in Annapolis, he read a joint statement, promising to address all the "core issues" and setting a deadline for a "two-state solution" by the end of next year. With negotiations scheduled to resume next month, today's agreement calls for implementation of the Roadmap established in 2003. At today's conference, attended by no less than 49 countries and international organizations--including Saudi Arabia, Syria and other members of the Arab League, President Bush set forth a formula that included obligations for Israelis, Palestinians and their Arab  neighbors. What about Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran? Do weak leaders reflect what's really happening on the ground? Can the US play a decisive role, presuming it wants to?

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Reporter's Notebook

The Hospice Biz ()

Originally designed to assist the dying at the very end of their lives hospice coverage by Medicare started in 1983. For a patient to qualify, two doctors must certify that he or she has less than six months to live. But now the federal government is demanding millions of dollars in reimbursement from hospice providers, because the cost of the program almost tripled between 2000 and 2005, in part because patients are outliving the actuarial expectations. That's according to reporter Kevin Sack in today's New York Times.

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