Kerry to keep pressure on Israeli-Palestinian talks during visit

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Kerry to keep pressure on Israeli-Palestinian talks during visit

By Adam Gonn (Xinhua) 08:34, November 04, 2013

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JERUSALEM, Nov. 3 -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to arrive in Israel on Tuesday for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. His two-day visit comes three months after he announced the resumption of direct Mideast peace negotiations.

Analysts told Xinhua that the negotiations are proceeding slowly for Kerry's plan.

"It's not a crisis but he would like to expedite the pace, so this is by way of beginning to build pressure. But, it's neither a sign of a failure nor an indication of a breakthrough," Prof. Itamar Rabinovich of Tel Aviv University said on Sunday.

NO MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH HAS BEEN MADE

So far the bilateral negotiation teams have met 15 times, but very little information is made public about what's being discussed and what progress has been made as Kerry imposed a media blackout on the talks.

However, both sides have indicated their willingness to continue the negotiations although each has to make sacrifices.

On the Israeli side, the government's decision to release a total of 52 Palestinian prisoners, many convicted of killing Israelis, has been harshly criticized. In addition, Israel continued to build more settlements, also angering the Palestinian people.

Ever since Kerry announced three months ago that the negotiations would be resumed, there has been speculation on how, or if, he was able to get the parties to give up their preconditions for direct peace negotiations between the two sides.

However, as Israel continued with its settlement construction, it becomes evident that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has to give up his demand that Israel reinstate a settlement construction freeze, as was the case in 2010, before he is willing to join talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also has to abandon his demand that Abbas recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people.

Abbas has been criticized for backtracking on the settlement construction, and Netanyahu is facing increasing opposition within his own party for continuing the negotiations amid several deadly attacks on the West Bank.

Dr. Jonathan Spyer of the Interdisciplinary-Center in Herzliya, said that "Everything that I know doesn't suggest that a major breakthrough has been made in recent months. On the contrary, the talks haven't made rapid progress, at least until now."

"Each side is certainly trying to show that they are serious about it, but there are certainly no visible reasons for immediate optimism, and not everything is visible," he said.

NO TIME TO ADD MORE TIME

Kerry's plan for a peace deal within nine months might seem to be quite optimistic based on the fact that in two decades of negotiations since the start of the peace process in Madrid, very little progress have been made on the core issues: the border of the future Palestinian state, what to do with the Palestinians who flee or leave when Israel was established and who will get control over Jerusalem.

However, according to the limited information that leaked from the talks, neither of the three core issues has been dealt with so far amid the negotiators, said Rabinovich, adding that it would be counterproductive for Kerry to suggest adding more time.

"About three months out of nine have expired, and there is no reason to talk about changing the timeframe. Extending the timeframe would actually ease pressure, but Kerry would like to intensify the pressure," Rabinovich said.

He added that "I don't think there will be any such changes."