John Kerry's visit to Israel and Palestine

The head of U.S. diplomacy, the Secretary of State, John Kerry, was in Jerusalem on Monday (8th) for a meeting with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority and then with Israeli President, Shimon Peres, on his second trip to the region in two weeks.

Kerry had accompanied President Barack Obama on the trip he took as his first official visit to Israel and Palestine, two weeks ago.

The mission is supposedly the resumption of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians in negotiations that are deadlocked at least since 2010.

After arriving in Israel on Sunday (7th), Kerry went straight to Ramallah in the West Bank, where he spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.  A State Department official called it "a constructive meeting."

Earlier on Monday, Kerry met with Israeli officials in a ceremony marking the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust, and also met with Fayyad in the U.S. consulate located in west Jerusalem in the late afternoon.

On Tuesday (9th), Kerry met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a meeting before the Secretary left for the UK.

During the third meeting in less than a month between Abbas and Kerry, both focused on Palestinian economic development in a 20-minute meeting with officials from both countries.

Then, in a private meeting, both "agreed to continue working together to determine the best path forward," with Kerry insisting on keeping the details under the cloth "to keep moving forward in a positive direction."

Abbas said the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is a "high priority" to resume peace talks, according to his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.

The president has repeatedly stated that there will be no return to negotiations without a freeze on building Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, but also said they will suspend for two months unilateral measures that seek international recognition of a Palestinian state, "to give a chance" to efforts mediated by the U.S..

Abbas also said he wanted Netanyahu to present a map of the borders for a future Palestinian state before the resumption of the talks.

"Any resumption of dialogue demands that Netanyahu agree to the 1967 borders," Nimr Hammad (his political adviser) told AFP last week.

Netanyahu has said on several occasions that he will not accept a return to the 1967 borders (the war years marked the illegal Israeli expansionism into Arab territories, including the Palestinian West Bank).

On Monday, a senior government official told the Israeli newspaper Ma 'ariv making a map is out of the question.

"It would be insane to present such a map. In effect, this means giving up our most important resource, without the Palestinians having committed to anything or recognition of Israel as a Jewish state" he said.

However, Israel has never shown a commitment to the negotiations and agreements reached with the Palestinians (including the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, widely heeded by Palestinians, but ignored by the Israeli government).

The current government, recently composed, provides for the maintenance of illegal construction in the Palestinian territories (through government funding), among other arbitrary and oppressive policies against Palestinians.

In Turkey, before departing for Israel, Kerry said in Ankara that they are an important partner for negotiations, but Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, recently appointed by the Israeli government as leader of the negotiations, suggested the idea of ​​a immediate reduced Turkish involvement responding "it is interesting, but it may take time."

The chief U.S. diplomat also urged Turkey and Israel to finalize the process of normalization of diplomatic relations, two weeks after Israel apologized for the attack carried out against a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in 2010, when Turkish citizens were killed.

On March 23, Kerry began his diplomatic campaign between Israel and the West Bank. As a result of conversations with Netanyahu, the prime minister announced, for example, the resumption of remitting the taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which had been frozen as a "punitive" measure after the PA had asked international recognition at the UN in November 2012.

As Obama's visit, the presence of Kerry has not been greeted with optimism by Palestinian organizations and movements who have lost confidence in a U.S. commitment to a just solution to the conflict.

However, the PA stated they would strive to "give a chance" to American attempts and proposals, as a way to demonstrate good will.

This continues to be reported despite the complete lack of commitment from Israel with the agreements and resolutions adopted at the UN with respect the rights of the Palestinian people.

 Vermelho

Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru

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