The Obama administration early Wednesday Sept 9 decided to schedule a tripartite US-Israeli-Palestinian summit at UN center in New York for Sept 22, DEBKAfile's Washington sources report, the day before the US president meets Russian president Dmitry Medvedev at the UN General Assembly.

The three leaders will declare Middle East peace talks resumed from that point. Defense minister Ehud Barak was referring to this development when he warned Tuesday night that Israel must brace for hard decisions.

DEBKAfile's political sources note that the US president's scheduling of the tripartite summit will require Netanyahu, Barak and foreign minister Lieberman to be present in New York and away from Israel over the New Year Festival.