Kerry Warns Israel:
US
Patience Running Out
Friday, 04 Apr 2014 06:30 PM
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday Washington
was evaluating whether to continue its role in Middle East peace talks,
signaling his patience with the Israelis and Palestinians was running out.
Speaking during a visit to Morocco after a week of setbacks, Kerry said
there was a limit to U.S.
efforts if the parties themselves were unwilling to move forward.
"This is not an open-ended
effort, it never has been. It is reality check time, and we intend to evaluate
precisely what the next steps will be," Kerry said, adding he would return
to Washington
on Friday to consult with the Obama administration.
U.S. officials say Kerry had been blindsided by recent Israeli
and Palestinian moves that had compromised undertakings made when they launched
the latest round of talks aimed at ending their enduring conflict last July.
"They say they want to
continue, neither party has said they have called it off, but we are not going
to sit there indefinitely," Kerry said, making his bleakest assessment yet
of talks that he has dedicated a huge amount of energy to.
The negotiations were catapulted
into crisis at the weekend when Israel
refused to act on a previously agreed release of Palestinian prisoners unless
it had assurances the Palestinians would continue talks beyond an initial
end-April deadline.
Kerry flew to Jerusalem to try to find a solution. Just
when he believed a convoluted deal was within reach, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas signed 15 international treaties, making clear he was ready to
beat a unilateral path to world bodies unless he saw more movement from the
Israelis.
A senior Palestinian official,
Nabil Shaath, told Reuters that Abbas had not intended to upset Kerry, but
rather to shine a spotlight on Israel's
failure to release the prisoners.
"I think (Kerry) will return
because we have not abandoned the process," said the veteran negotiator,
speaking in Ramallah, the Palestinians' administrative capital in the West Bank.
"We will continue these
negotiations as we agreed, and I wish for once that America's
patience runs out — with Israel
and not the Palestinians," he added.
With both sides looking to blame
the other for the impasse, Israel's
centrist finance minister, Yair Lapid, said he questioned whether Abbas wanted
a deal, pointing to a lengthy list of Palestinian demands published on Maan
news agency.
These included lifting a blockade
on the Gaza Strip, and freeing a group of high profile prisoners, including
Marwan Barghouti, jailed a decade ago over a spate of suicide bombings.
"(Abbas) should know that at
this point in time his demands are working against him. No Israeli will
negotiate with him at any price," said Lapid, one of the more moderate
voices within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist coalition.
Kerry has spent much of his first
year as America's top
diplomat invested in the Middle East peace
process, and has visited the region more than a dozen times.
He broke off twice from his
current 12-day trip in Europe and the Middle East
to see Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an apparently effort to salvage the
peace negotiations.
The talks have struggled from the
start, stalling over Palestinian opposition to Israel's
demand that it be recognized as a Jewish state, and over the issue of
fast-growing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinians want an independent
state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem
— lands captured by Israel
in the 1967 war. While all parties say negotiations are the best path to peace,
Palestinians say they may eventually resort to international bodies to force Israel
to make concessions.
Palestine
Palestine
is a member of a League of Arab States.
Note: Morocco is a member
of a League of Arab States.
League of
Arab States is a member of the United Arab Emirates.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the United
Arab Emirates.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior
counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at
the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American
Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Valerie B. Jarrett
is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior
adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center for the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Kenneth M.
Pollack is a senior fellow at the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, and was a senior fellow, Middle
East policy for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Martin S. Indyk
is a founding director fellow at the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, a Middle East
peace envoy for the U.S. Department of
State, and was a VP & director of the Foreign Policy Program for the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Haim
Saban is a benefactor for the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, a trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and a friend of Shimon
Peres.
Shimon
Peres is a friend of Haim Saban,
and the president of Israel.
Thomas R.
Pickering was the U.S.
ambassador for Israel,
the under secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, and is a distinguished fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Cameron F. Kerry
is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and John F. Kerry’s brother.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
and married to John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is Cameron F. Kerry’s brother,
married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, and
the secretary at the U.S. Department of
State for the Barack Obama
administration.
Barack
Obama is the president of the Barack
Obama administration, and was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago,
Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center for the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Haim
Saban is a benefactor for the Saban
Center for Middle East Policy, a trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and a friend of Shimon
Peres.
Shimon
Peres is a friend of Haim Saban,
and the president of Israel.
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