United States Secretary of State John F.
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
on Sunday offered Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
a package of Israeli concessions, including the transfer of land from Israeli to Paleostinian control, in return for agreeing to return to the negotiating table.
Kerry, making his third visit to the region in two weeks, made the offers during a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday night, Paleostinian
media reported. However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
Abbas stuck firm to his demand that Israel put a moratorium on settlement construction as a precondition for returning to the negotiating table.
The package included transferring control of more land in the West Bank from Area C, under full Israeli control, to become Area A, under full Paleostinian control.
In addition, Kerry promised that Israel would commit to releasing frozen tax rebates and not withholding tax funds in the future.
Jerusalem won't hand Kerry list of concessions
| Seeing the above, it appears The Second Smartest Man In The Room made promises he can't deliver. |
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
a list of concessions, as requested by the PA, before talks resumed.
PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
has demanded Jerusalem hand Washington a map showing the territorial concessions Israel is prepared to offer as part of a comprehensive peace deal, and threatened he would not return to the negotiation table before this was done.
Political adviser Nimr Hammad told AFP that the Paleostinian leader "wants to know, through a map to be presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Kerry, what the prime minister's view of a two-state solution would be, especially the borders."
"Any return to negotiations requires Netanyahu to agree on 1967 borders," Hammad told the news agency.
Unnamed Israeli officials told the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth that the PA would simply use such a map as a new starting point for negotiations, having scored a victory without having to make a move.
During US President Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
's recent trip to the region he called on the Paleostinians to resume talks with Israel with no preconditions, but so far Abbas hasn't backed down from his demand that Israel release prisoners, freeze settlement construction and agree to a Paleostinian state based on the pre-1967 borders -- before starting direct negotiations
The gaps between the sides are too big, sources close to Netanyahu were quoted as saying by the Hebrew daily. Any concession Israel makes now would only harm it in the future.
Kerry is in the region this weekend for another round of meetings with Israeli and Paleostinian officials in an effort to restart talks between the sides. He met with Abbas in Jordan on Saturday and was scheduled to hold talks with Netanyahu Sunday, following a brief visit to Ankara.
Kerry seeks speedy fix for Turkish-Israeli ties
| "Manolo! Fetch my reset button! And another round of *hic* Fuzzy Navels for my guests -- they aren't drunk enough to see my hat yet!" |
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
urged Turkish leaders Sunday to speedily restore full diplomatic relations with Israel, two American allies the US sees as anchors of stability in a Middle East wracked by Syria's civil war, Arab Spring political upheavals and the potential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program.
Turkey, however, demanded that Israel end all "embargoes" against the Paleostinians first.
In Istanbul on the first leg of a 10-day overseas trip, Kerry met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu with the aim of firming up the rapprochement between Turkey and Israel that President Barack Obama
We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us...
kick-started during a visit to the Jewish state last month.
Kerry meets later Sunday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before traveling on to Israel.
"We would like to see this relationship that is important to stability in the Middle East and critical to the grinding of the peace processor ... get back on track in its full measure," Kerry told news hounds at a joint news conference with Davutoglu. He said that meant promises of "compensation be fulfilled, ambassadors be returned and full relations be embraced."
The two nations were once close partners, but the relationship plummeted in 2010 after an Israeli raid on a flotilla bound for the Gazoo Strip. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American died.
Before leaving Israel two weeks ago, Obama arranged a telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Erdogan. Netanyahu apologized for the incident, and compensation talks are expected to begin this week.
But Davutoglu suggested that full normalization of ties would probably take some time.
"There is an offense that has been committed and there needs to be accountability," Davutoglu said. He signaled that Turkey would pursue a "careful" advance toward a complete restoration of relations, with compensation and an end to Israeli trade restrictions on the Gazoo Strip as the stumbling blocks.
"All of the embargos should be eliminated once and for all," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
| Fixing the Turkish-Israeli relationship has been a long-sought goal of the B.O. regime, and the US desperately wants significant progress by the time Erdogan visits the White House in mid-May. |
The Turks have reveled somewhat in what they view as a diplomatic victory, with billboards in Ankara celebrating Netanyahu's apology and praising Erdogan for bringing pride to his country. Perhaps seeking to buffer his leverage further, Erdogan signaled shortly after the call that he was in no hurry to finalize the deal and pledged to visit the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-controlled Paleostinian territory soon.
From a US strategic sense, cooperation between the American allies has only become more important as Syria's two-year conflict has grown ever deadlier. More than 70,000 people have died in the war, according to the United Nations
...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
, but the US fears it could get even worse -- by spilling into neighboring countries or through chemical weapons being used. Both potential scenarios have prompted intense contingency planning among Washington and its regional partners, Israel and Turkey included.
Kerry, who noted his twice-weekly telephone chats with Davutoglu, spoke of shared US and Turkish efforts to support Syria's opposition coalition. The opposition has suffered from poor coordination between its politicianship and the military factions leading the fight against the Assad regime, and from intense infighting among those who seek to guide the amorphous movement's overall strategy.
Turkey has gone further than the US in its assistance, accepting some 180,000 Syrians as refugees and sending advanced weaponry to rebels fighting to overthrow
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
. The US is only providing non-lethal aid to the rebels in the form of meals, medical kits and training.
Kerry praised Turkey for its generosity toward refugees and commitment to keeping its borders open, an issue of growing US concern as the outflow of Syrians stretches the capacities of neighboring countries to accommodate them.
The United States and Turkey will continue cooperating toward the shared goal of a peaceful transition in Syria, he said.
Although given short shrift at the news conference, a US official stressed ahead of Kerry's meetings that he would also urge the Turks to remain cautious over the contentious issue of Iraqi oil.
Turkey wants to import oil directly from Iraq's autonomous Kurds in the north, a step that would enrage the central government in Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
and one the US opposes. Washington doesn't want the riches of Iraq to bring the country back to sectarian warfare and has urged that any export arrangement get the Iraqi government's blessing.
The secretary of state is flying later Sunday to Israel, his third trip there in the span of two weeks. He'll meet Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
in Ramallah on Sunday night, followed by Netanyahu and other senior Israeli and Paleostinian officials Monday as part of a fresh American bid to unlock the long-stalled Middle East grinding of the peace processor.
Conversations in Israel will also cover shared US and Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear program. The US and other world powers met the Islamic republic in Kazakhstan for another round of negotiations, but no breakthrough was announced on a proposed deal that would see international sanctions on Iran eased if Tehran convinces the world it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Kerry said the "door is still open" for a negotiated agreement, but that the onus was on the Iranians.
"If you have a peaceful program for nuclear power, as a number of nations do, it's not hard to prove that," he said. "They have chosen not to live up to the international requirements and standards with respect to verification of their program."