. >>> you have heard my take, now let's hear from israel's ambassador to washington michael oren who's joining me. welcome, ambassador. >> always good to be with you. >> for a lot of people this seems like a change of heart. it seemed as though there was almost this conflict between washington and israel where the obama administration wanted netanyahu's negotiations seriously, and after four years of prodding, what changed? >> well, nothing changed much from our side, we were always ready to enter into negotiations with the palestinians, without preconditions. that was the prime minister's position four years ago, it's his position today, we support a solution based on two states for two peoples. a jewish state of israel living side by side in peace and security and mutual recognition. what the palestinians state, it was not the palestinian position, the palestinians had number of preconditions, they were not willing to live in a situation of mutual recognition. we recognize the palestinians as a people endowed with the right of self-determination. what has shifted, i believe, is that

state. >> and michael oren is with us.t listening to a sound bite. i wanted to play some sound of the israeli minister who is the counterpart to arakat. if we have that available. >> it's time for the palestinian people to have an independent, sovereign state of their own. it is time for the palestinians to live in peace, freedom and dignity within their own independent sovereign state. >> we all know that it's not going to be easy. it's going to be hard with ups and downs. but i can assure you that these negotiations -- in these negotiations, it is not our intention to argue about the past but to create solutions and make decisions for the future. >> if they could be together, mr. ambassador, and not argue about the past centuries of disagreements really and certainly half-century most recently in our lifetime, that would be a big deal indeed. but the atmosphere seemed very genuine today. you just came from the state department. tell us about it. >> good afternoon. great to you with you, andrea. a very good beginning. con