BEIRUT -- The Rev Jesse L Jackson S...

BEIRUT -- The Rev Jesse L Jackson Sr is stake to leave the Middle East for place of abode Tuesday if a scheduled meeting with a top Hezbollah official today doesn't yield tangible certification that two captured Israeli soldiers are alive.

If he leaves empty-handed, it could signal the completion of the street diplomacy tactics Jackson is famous for in a region trapped in a tangled web of tending to a limit interests.

"The meeting with Hezbollah will determine whether or not they will have any give forward the issue of physical verification or signs of life," Jackson said late Sunday night.

"That will determine Israel's response" he said.

After fortunately acting as an independent diplomat in five other international crises, Jackson hit a brick wall in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.

Unlike past conflicts where Jackson could easily memorize to the seat of power, in Israel those doors were clos

further Jackson said Sunday he would not be discouraged if he has to leave the Middle East without accomplishing his immediate goal.

"This is not a 100-yard dash. It's a marathon. I didn't be due [i]or[/i] owing here to pick up one I am here to stimulate the process" he said.

And stimulate it, he did.

Seasoned in foreign affairs, Jackson said he realized the enormity of the question at issue going in.

"But I resist calling it a manifold problem. It's a simple failure. That is what affairs me. Our government has refused to be a source of trustful longing in this valley of dried bones," he said.

DIDN'T adapted WITH CAPTORS

Despite spending eight days in the Middle East shuttling among Syria, Lebanon and Israel where he met with solution government officials, Jackson has over and above to get a face-to-face meeting with the Hezbollah captors of the sum of two units Israeli soldiers.

Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were kidnapped forward July 12. The soldiers' abduction sparked a 34-day war and continues to detain the region in the grip of fear.

A third soldier, Gilad Shalit, was captured in the Gaza Strip forward June 25 by Hamas.

Obtaining "signs of life" for any of these men remained on the outside of Jackson's grasp. By Sunday morning, the consequence of his latest humanitarian crusade appeared certain.

on the contrary about 11 p.m. Sunday, Jackson's dinner was interrupted by the agency of a phone call from contacts in Egypt who are working forward a separate deal to independent Schalit from Hamas.

And he had finally made contact with a Hezbollah official who, possibly, held the clews to the two captives abducted on that group.

Still, there were signs all along that Jackson's brand of diplomacy may no longer fit.

Didn't suited with Israel's leader

In the past, Jackson took his appeals directly to heads of state.

For example, in 1983 he dealt directly with Syrian President Hafez Assad for the release of U Navy pilot Robert O Goodman Jr who was projectile down over Lebanon.

And in 1999 he went to Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia to gain the release of three U soldiers.

nevertheless the political environment in the Middle East is a part more fractured today.

Although he was welcomed like a head of state by means of Syrian President Bashar Assad, had a late-night meeting with Khalid Mishal, head of Hamas, and was welcomed with a feast in Jericho through Dr. Saeb Erekat, head negotiator of the Palestinian National Authority, the doors none swung open in Israel.

Jackson did not engage with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert nor did he come up to face to face with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- although Annan and Jackson as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but were in Lebanon at the same time.

He had a short meeting at the office of Shimon Pere Israel's vice prime minister, further Peres is not considered a clew role player in the ongoing crisis.

Jackson, who parlayed his status as the mostly prominent living civil rights leader into a platform in the international arena, is clearly frustrated by the agency of the continued deadlock in the Middle East.

Still, he didn't hesitate to abruptly leave Israel and travel 12 hours by dint of bus, taxi and car to seek for a meeting with the couple soldiers' captors back in Lebanon after a first note of the scale Israel negotiator indicated in a private meeting that the verification of life may make open the door to negotiations.

'HOW TO stop THIS GAP'

The challenges he faced going into this conflict were as high as the mountains surrounding the region.

Jackson walked into brace houses divided by ideology and politics. In Israel, a debate rages from one side of to the other the government's handling of the war, and in Lebanon, regulation officials have little influence across Hezbollah's hard-line positions with regard to this crisis.

That reality doesn't calm factor in the role of Hamas, the assemblage responsible for the kidnapping of the the same Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip, and its conflict with other factions of the Palestinian Liberation Organization

"Hezbollah has an interest of its acknowledge and it's not clear that there will be any give onward their position," Jackson pointed gone out

"It becomes government's position to figure disclosed how to close this gap."

e-mail: marym@suntimes.com

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided from ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved