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Kerry in Israel to Push Peace Talks

by Scott Bobb January 02, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returned to Israel on Thursday for talks the State Department says will include a proposed framework for the major issues standing in the way of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

His latest trip comes amid stiffening resistance to his efforts to revitalize the Middle East peace process.

Positions on both sides appeared to have hardened recently over proposals regarding Jewish settlements and security arrangements in Palestinian parts of the Jordan Valley that are under the control of Israeli security forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Kerry after his arrival that there is 'growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are committed to peace.'

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials, who disagree with Israeli officials on many thorny issues.

But Kerry, who will also meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah during the multi-day visit, said that while the U.S. commitment to Israel is 'ironclad,' a peace deal is not 'mission impossible.'

Speaking to reporters in an appearance with Netanyahu, Kerry said that the goal is to bring ideas from both Israelis and Palestinians to end the conflict.

As Kerry arrived, Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar led a delegation of Israeli parliament members and senior government officials to the Gitit settlement in the Jordan Valley, a strategic area of the West Bank.

He laid the foundation of a new neighborhood there and said it was a message that the strategic region bordering Jordan must remain Israel's eastern border forever.

"If we do not insist on our position regarding the Jordan Valley, the Israeli state will be a state without strategic depth," he said.

Sa'ar added that when there are no settlements there is no Israeli army and when there is no army there is no security, only terrorism.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed nearly five months ago after a three-year freeze.

They remain stuck over many issues, most notably the borders of a future Palestinian state, the status of East Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

The debate over the Jordan Valley has intensified as discussions reportedly focus on the withdrawal of Israeli security forces from parts of the West Bank still under their control.

The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said at a rally on the eve of Kerry's trip that the Palestinians are the people most in need of security most notably, he said, protection from attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

"We have made clear our rejection of any Israeli military presence in the territory of the future independent Palestinian state and our commitment to Palestinian sovereignty over all its land, water, resources, airspace, borders and crossings," he said.

Abbas added that the Palestinians would like an international presence to ensure security in its territory after any peace treaty is signed. Israel has rejected this proposal.

The Syrian civil war and Iran's nuclear program are also expected to come under discussion during Kerry's visit in anticipation of international conferences on these issues later this month.