Kerry’s Framework has been shelved

Gloom in Kerry’s party over widening Israeli-Palestinian gaps. Jordan rejects Palestinian security on its border

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 5, 2014, 10:19 PM

US Secretary of State John Kerry returns Sunday night, Jan. 5 for another shuttle between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas after taking time-out for dropping in on Amman and Riyadh. DEBKAfile reports that Kerry has ordered his team to shelve the proposed framework accord he presented to Netanyahu in 12 hours of talks and eight with Abbas Friday and Saturday. He concluded that the gaps between them on the core issues of the dispute were getting wider instead of narrower.

The Palestinians reject any Israeli security presence on the West Bank. However, in Amman, Secretary Kerry found Jordan’s King Abdullah just as adamantly opposed to any Palestinian security presence on their common border along the Jordan Valley, or their participation in future security arrangements for the West Bank.

The monarch told Kerry in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t trust Palestinian security and intelligence organs. According to our sources, the Jordanian ruler said he found totally unacceptable the Palestinian plan for defending their future borders, which Palestinian intelligence chief Gen. Nidal Abu Dohan presented last week in Amman.

The Secretary proceeded from Jordan to Saudi Arabia later Sunday in search of some lead for energizing his Middle East peace effort. According to our sources, he planned to ask Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah for a public gesture, such as a joint economic enterprise, for luring Netanyahu into accepting a greater measure of his proposed framework. However, it is doubtful whether he found the 92-year old monarch and his advisers in any mood for attending to Israel and the Palestinians, after the Obama administration had offered Iraq’s Shiite prime minister advanced weapons for fighting – not just Al Qaeda but also the Sunni Arab tribes of western Iraq.

John Kerry Sunday night faced five major difficulties:

1. The Palestinians insist on Jerusalem being registered in any agreement as the capital of their future state. The Prime Minister is flat against this.

2. Mahmoud Abbas is totally opposed to recognizing Israel as the Jewish State. His last conversation with the Secretary in Ramallah Saturday morning is described as “very tough.” Kerry informed him that Netanyahu’s demand for Israel’s recognition as the Jewish state had been adopted as official American policy. When he heard this, the Palestinian leader dug his heels in still deeper against relenting on this point.

3. Abbas turned aside the critical refugee question by telling the US secretary that the decision was not up to him and would in any case not be binding on a single Palestinian refugee.

4. The clause in the US framework relating to the Jordan Valley border is opposed by Israel, the Palestinians and the Jordanians.

5. Neither has agreement been reached on the sum total of land the Palestinians will receive or Israel will cede.

The Palestinian leader accused Israel of establishing a new settlement bloc stretching from northern Jerusalem to Binyamin and forming a barrier between Ramallah and Jerusalem.

The prime minister for his part asked Kerry to stop interfering in Israeli domestic politics by organizing a faction opposed to government strategy in the negotiations with the Palestinians. Netanyahu said: “I am holding negotiations with you and the Palestinians, not with Israelis.”

The US Secretary promised that contacts with Israeli politicians would be handled solely by the US embassy and Ambassador Dan Shapiro. Other channels would be discontinued.

January 6, 2014 | 12 Comments »

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  2. yamit82 Said:

    Hebron Will Not Miss Sharon By: David Wilder
    Ariel Sharon is dying. It’s not considered nice to say bad things about dead people, especially immediately after their passing. So I’m writing this while he’s still alive. Barely.

    Netanyahu may suffer if he signs peace deal, settler spokeman says
    David Wilder draws parallel between the tragic ends of PMs who surrendered land; comments come with Sharon at death’s door

    I agree it was divine punishment. I will not be sorry to see him go – what he did to the Jews was returned to him in kind, measure for measure. Israel’s leaders who turn their backs on G-d will assuredly meet the same fate!

    One has the right and the duty to be judgmental of those who do evil to their brethren and to the House Of Israel! What Sharon did will never be forgiven not in this world nor in the next.

  4. Kerry Exposes Saudi Arabia as Abbas’ Senior Negotiator Kerry went to Saudi Arabia, which more than a decade ago proposed the plan on which all of Abbas’ demands are made.

    It was Saudi Arabia that came up with the 2002 “Peace Initiative” by which Israel would agree to everything that Mahmoud Abbas now is demanding in return for “normalization” of diplomatic ties with the Arab League countries. “Normalize” does not mean diplomatic recognition. It means whatever any country wants it to mean, but the bottom line is money, meaning trade relations. It does not mean that the Israeli flag will fly in Riyadh.

    Before Kerry left Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters, “His Majesty again reiterated the principles of the Arab Peace Plan and agreement (inaudible) come to respond to Palestinian national wishes to receive (inaudible) ultimately.” In other words, he told Kerry to jump in the lake. Kerry said, “I’m always grateful to the incredible hospitality of my friend Saud al-Faisal, whose friendship and counsel I value enormously. “I want to thank His Majesty for not just the length of the meeting, but for the quality of the meeting, for the fullness of the exchange of ideas, and particularly for his enthusiastic support for the efforts that are being made with respect to the peace process and the effort to try to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.” In other words, Kerry jumped in the lake head first. Before doing so, he may have laid the groundwork for a brilliant diplomatic coup to grind Israel’s nose into the dirt or, more likely, to prepare the United States for an even worse debacle in the Middle East, a feat once thought as impossible. The Saudi-based Arab World reported Monday, “Looking to ease the concerns of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Kerry said that America’s allies could count on US support. Kerry is in Saudi Arabia on the second leg of a tour through the Middle East.” Kerry has promised he will never sacrifice Israel’s security. He has promised the Palestinian Authority it will have a country based on the borders that would leave Israel without security. He has promised that Saudi Arabia, which is unhappy over President Barack Obama’s appeasement of Syria and Iran, it has its full support. Kerry is now on his way back to Washington to look for snake oil.

  10. If this report is true after the 9 months the peace process will be over.

    Israel needs to anticipate the PAs next move, which by prior threat was to try and join more UN organizations plus the ICC.

    Israel should then pass the Levy Report, start all building in E1 and elsewhere.

    Hotley should start preparing the ground for her plan of Annexation.

    This could start with Marie Regev’s bill that went through the Minister’s Council.

  11. The US “framework” disintegrated because no one trusts the US.

    Put quite simply, the US does not have a good track record of standing up for its allies.

    No one is inclined to help a weakened President Obama out of his political difficulties at home or to clean up the mess he’s leaving behind in the Middle East.