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 Kerry, who has quipped that his frequent trips to the region have
become a commute, planned separate meetings with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
It will be the top U.S. diplomat's ninth visit to Israel since
becoming secretary of state in February. Israel and the Palestinians
resumed U.S.-brokered peace talks in July after a three-year break,
aiming to reach a deal in nine months.
Amid little public sign of progress in the negotiations, Kerry said
he had presented Israel and the Palestinians last week with "some
thoughts" on security arrangements in any future accord, but gave no
details.
A Palestinian source said that a U.S. security proposal last week
outlined an Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley, which is
in the occupied West Bank, for 10 years.
Israel has long said it wants to keep a military presence in the
Jordan Valley between the West Bank and Jordan, in what would
constitute the eastern border of a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinians reject that Israeli stipulation, and on Monday a
senior Palestinian official accused Washington of bowing to Israel's
security demands to silence its criticism of world power diplomacy
over Iran's nuclear program.
Israeli and U.S. officials have signaled that Washington is trying
to achieve a framework agreement on all major issues of the
decades-old conflict that would be fulfilled in phases, in a nod to
Israeli security concerns.
Netanyahu has voiced worries that without an Israeli troop presence,
Islamist militants could use the West Bank as a launching point for
rocket attacks on Israel, much as they have in the Gaza Strip, from
which Israel pulled out in 2005. "Israel's security and the
security of its citizens cannot be placed in the hands of foreign
forces or in the hands of electronic means alone," Israeli Strategic
Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Israel Radio.
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"Our security must be in our own hands," he said. "I know it is hard
for (the Palestinians) to swallow but they will have to accept ...
that Israel has security interests it cannot forgo, and if they want
peace, they must make significant compromises."
In Washington on Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama said the
Palestinians had to recognize there would be a transition period
"where the Israeli people cannot expect a replica of Gaza in the
West Bank".
"They (the Palestinians) don't get everything that they want on Day
One. And that creates some political problems for President Abbas,
as well," Obama said.
The Palestinians, who seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
with East Jerusalem as its capital, have long rejected any interim
agreement.
But Western-backed Abbas, who has held sway only in the West Bank
since his Hamas Islamist rivals seized the Gaza Strip in 2007, has
hinted he would agree to a gradual implementation of a final accord.
Hamas refuses to recognize Israel.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said talks on security
arrangements would continue during Kerry's visit but other issues
would be discussed as well.
(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Maayan
Lubell; editing by Jeffrey Heller and Alistair Lyon)
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