As part of Jerusalem’s ongoing efforts to boost the peace initiative being pushed by Secretary of State John Kerry, Israel has agreed to release “hardcore” Palestinian prisoners. The concession may however prove insufficient to overcome Palestinian opposition to renewing negotiations between the parties. Palestinian factions have resisted exhortations by President Authority (PA) President Mahmoud...

Top Palestinian Authority (PA) figures are downplaying the significance of Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent announcement that a “basis” had been established for renewing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Spokespeople for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are explaining that that an upcoming three-way meeting in Washington will be at best exploratory...

Late last week Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he had achieved a “basis” for restarting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. On Sunday a top Palestinian official clarified that, actually, not so much: Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and one of the Palestinians’...

Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are set to resume is running into immediate hurdles, with Palestinians issuing further demands before agreeing to return to the negotiating table. Kerry’s initiative also faces more systematic problems. Palestinian glorification of terrorism and Palestinian incitement, which has been explicitly...

After months in which Israeli officials had been calling on their Palestinian counterparts to return to negotiations without preconditions – and had been rebuffed – Secretary of State John Kerry announced a breakthrough this afternoon. The language of the announcement – which did not set a date for talks to resume – seemed carefully...

Reported progress on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process stalled this afternoon after Palestinians announced a delay in their response to a peace initiative being pushed by Secretary of State John Kerry. Reports of a meeting between Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and various Palestinian factions are not encouraging: Palestinian Authority...