U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry returned to Israel late Monday as reports emerged that Jerusalem had presented Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas with a draft proposal designed to extend U.S.-brokered negotiations beyond their originally scheduled April 29 deadline.
“Our negotiating team has been working with both parties on the ground to help them agree on a path forward, and Secretary Kerry has kept in close touch with his counterparts by phone,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “After consulting with his team, Secretary Kerry decided it would be productive to return to the region,” Psaki said.
Palestinian diplomats threatened last week to abandon talks should the Israelis refuse to release a fourth batch of prisoners, after Jerusalem had previously released three other groups to entice the Palestinians to join and then stay at the negotiating table.
Israeli leaders – including Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who has consistently pushed for talks from within the government – emphasized that Israel would not release dozens of murderers after the Palestinians had spent the last several months flatly rejecting a U.S.-backed peace framework.
Palestinian leaders, up to and including Abbas, had also repeatedly threatened to renew diplomatic warfare against the Jewish state, and Reuters had reported last January that Ramallah had a list of “international bodies from which they could harass Israel – including the International Criminal Court.”
Palestinian boasts aired last week, which cited potential long-term campaigns in international bodies, deepened concerns that they will pocket functionally irreversible Israeli concessions and walk away anyway.
“The Israeli retreat absolves us from the agreement to not join international organizations,” the Palestinian official said. “We will work on a plan to move internationally while taking other steps on the ground to face the Israeli measures, including the Judaization of Al-Quds [occupied East Jerusalem], settlement activities, murder and oppression, and to exercise pressure to free the prisoners,” Raafat added.
Abbas and other top PA figures had also soured the Israeli public on additional releases by ostentatiously celebrating previously freed terrorists and murderers as heroes.
[Photo: WhochitGeneralNews / YouTube]