Meets Israeli and Palestinian Leaders Amid Ongoing Wave of Palestinian Attacks
Amid an ongoing wave of Palestinian attacks on Israel, US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to “calm things down a little bit.”
There are few expectations for Kerry’s visit, although Israeli officials welcomed Kerry’s strong statements on the wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis over the past two months that have left 23 Israelis dead and dozens wounded. About 90 Palestinians have also died in the fighting, some of them during attacks and others in clashes with Israeli soldiers.
“Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence, with attacks in the streets, with knives or scissors or cars,” Kerry said at a news conference with Netanyahu. “Israel has every right in the world to defend itself. It has an obligation to defend itself….I’m here today to talk with the Prime Minister about the ways that we can work together, all of us – the international community – to push back against terrorism, to restore calm and to begin providing the opportunities that most reasonable people in every part of the world are seeking for themselves and for their families.”
Kerry also mentioned Ezra Schwartz, an American killed last week in a terrorist attack in the West Bank. Kerry described him as “a young man who came here out of high school, ready to go to college, excited about his future, and yesterday his family was sitting shiva (traditional Jewish mourning practice) and I talked to them and heard their feelings, the feelings of any parent for the loss of a child.”
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that Kerry would ask for measures to improve the Palestinian economy and strengthen the Palestinian Authority. In return, reported Ha’aretz, Netanyahu will demand that the US accept construction in the large “settlement blocs” in return for these gestures to the Palestinians. These blocs are areas in the West Bank that Israel says must remain part of the Jewish state even after a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Israeli officials say that they want President Obama to recognize a letter written by former President Bush to then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In that letter the President said that the US would take into account the “changes on the ground” and “existence of Israelis population centers.”
The US current policy says that all “settlements” are an obstacle to peace and must be dismantled. Palestinians say that any attempt to expand building in the West Bank must be rejected.
“This is one of the rare things in which Israel stands alone,” Ghassan Khatib, a Vice President at Bir Zeit University and a former Palestinian government spokesman told The Media Line. “There is a world consensus minus Israel that settlements are illegal.”
He also said he expects that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will ask Kerry to reverse its policy of allowing “Jewish extremists” to make provocative visits to a Jerusalem site that is holy to Jews and non-Jews. Rumors that Israel intends to change the status quo at the site, which allows Jews to visit but not to pray there, helped spark the current wave of violence. Khatib also said that Abbas will ask Kerry to pressure Israel to ease restrictions on freedom of movement for Palestinians.
A US recognition of Israel’s continued control over the “settlement blocs” could help restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, said former military Intelligence Chief General Ya’acov Amidror.
“It is understood that that those blocs will remain in Israel, so why shouldn’t they build?” Amidror asked The Media Line. He also said that “Palestinians must stop the incitement against Israel” and then Israel can make concessions in exchange.
He said that Netanyahu has several times said he is ready to return to talks with Abbas, but Abbas is not prepared to resume negotiations. Yet officials on both sides doubt that Kerry’s trip will make any real headway towards resuming negotiations. They say that helping to calm tensions would be enough of an achievement.