JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a gloomy assessment of peace
prospects with the Palestinians on Thursday as U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry began his 10th visit to the region in pursuit of a deal.
"There is growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are
committed to peace," said Netanyahu, speaking with Kerry at his side
and accusing Palestinian officials of orchestrating a campaign of
"rampant" incitement against Israel.
Netanyahu specifically criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas for the heroes' welcome he gave a group of Palestinian
prisoners, most convicted of murdering Israelis, who were released
from Israeli jails on Tuesday.
"To glorify the murderers of innocent women and men as heroes is an
outrage," he said. The prisoner release was arranged as part of last
year's U.S.-brokered package to revive peace talks.
In the days before Kerry's latest trip to Jerusalem, Palestinian
leaders have likewise accused Israel of trying to sabotage the talks
aimed at ending their decades-old conflict.
Kerry focused his remarks on a continued U.S. push toward a final
peace agreement, which Washington hopes to achieve by the end of
April, and his shorter-term pursuit of a framework deal that would
pave the way for a permanent accord.
He said Israeli and Palestinian leaders were nearing the point, or
were already at it, where they would have to make tough decisions,
and he pledged to work with both sides more intensely to try to
narrow differences on a framework agreement.
Guidelines in such an accord would address core issues such as the
borders of a future Palestinian state, security, Palestinian
refugees and the status of Jerusalem, Kerry said.
"It would create the fixed, defined parameters by which the parties
would then know where they are going and what the end result can
be," he said. "This will take time and it will take compromise from
both sides, but an agreed framework would be a significant
breakthrough."
Kerry seems to be trying to get both sides to make a series of
compromises on the broad outlines of an agreement with the details
to be filled in later — a tall order in that neither may wish to
make such tradeoffs without seeing the fine print.
The secretary of state, who plans to see Netanyahu and Abbas
separately over the next three days, said he did not intend to
impose U.S. ideas, but to "facilitate the parties' own efforts".
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a senior U.S. State Department
official said Kerry was not expecting a breakthrough during this
trip.
On key issues in the conflict, leaders from both sides have sounded
far apart this week.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin on Thursday rejected the
creation of a Palestinian state based on the lines pre-dating the
1967 Six-Day War, in which Israel captured and occupied Gaza, East
Jerusalem and the West Bank.
"The Jordan Valley must be under Israeli sovereignty forever," he
said, referring to the border area with Jordan, from which
Palestinians want a full Israeli withdrawal.
"The 1967 borders are Auschwitz borders," Ha'aretz newspaper quoted
him as saying, suggesting that a return to the narrower boundaries
that existed before the conflict would lead to the destruction of
Israel.
On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas renewed a call for
all Israeli settlers and soldiers within the lands captured in 1967
to be withdrawn, saying he would not hesitate to reject a bad deal.
"We will say 'yes' to any ideas suggested to us which meet our
rights. But we will not fear and will not hesitate for a moment ...
to say 'no', whatever the pressure, to any proposal which detracts
from or doesn't fulfill the higher national interests of our
people," he said in a speech.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat last month said a framework
agreement could allow the talks to be continued for another year.
However, earlier this week, he said the U.S.-brokered talks were
"failing", and threatened to haul Israel before the International
Criminal Court.
(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Ramallah; writing by
Jeffrey Heller; editing by Crispian Balmer and Mark Trevelyan)
"There is growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are
committed to peace," said Netanyahu, speaking with Kerry at his side
and accusing Palestinian officials of orchestrating a campaign of
"rampant" incitement against Israel.
