Kerry assesses prospects for Israel-Palestinian peace deal

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s first two months of assessing and gauging prospects for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has not dissuaded him from the task, but a senior Palestinian official has said that Kerry has asked to defer revealing his plan from the promised date of May 23 until around June 7.
In a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held in Amman on March 23, Kerry requested two months in which to put together the framework for his proposal to restart the stagnant Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Since that meeting, Kerry has met with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab officials as well as with American business people in the US, Israel, Europe and Turkey.
“In his meeting with President Abbas in Istanbul, Kerry said that he is working hard, but he thinks that the date of May 23 is not enough to finalize the framework he is working on and that he needs two weeks more,” the Palestinian official said. Nothing is known so far about what the Kerry plan will include that is new or would succeed in jumpstarting the talks that stopped more than four years ago.
But in a meeting with a delegation of Arab foreign ministers at the Blair House in Washington in late April, Kerry told the visiting diplomats that his proposal would have economic, security and political components.
“Mr. Kerry told us that he began moving on three tracks in parallel. The political, security and economical tracks, to put it all together in a comprehensive framework soon,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said after the meeting. “He stressed that the security and economic tracks will be part of the political track and not at its expense or alternative to it,” Malki added. While many Palestinian officials are skeptical about Kerry’s attempts, many others hope he will succeed.
“Mr. Kerry’s success is success for us, the Palestinians,” one senior Palestinian official said. Previously, it was learned that Kerry’s economic package would include huge projects aimed at spurring fiscal growth in the West Bank in the course of the coming three years.
The more skeptical reaction was sounded by another Palestinian official who asked, “How do you expect me to believe that we will be able to implement huge projects in “Area C,” when we are not able to connect small villages in that area with pipes of water?”
According to the United Nations, more than 60 percent of the West Bank falls into that classification, which allows Israel the last word in decisions relating to law enforcement, planning and construction.
Kerry is working on the economic component of his plan with Tony Blair, the representative of the Quartet, the international sponsor of the peace process that includes the US, United Nations, European Union and Russia.
In one suggestion to improve the region’s economy, Blair argued that, “Addressing permit-related obstacles to the cultivation of arable lands… and the rehabilitation and development of existing stone and marble quarries in Area C is bound to make a significant contribution to the Palestinian economy.”
Many expect Blair’s recommendations to become part of the Kerry plan, perhaps including Blair’s admonition to include among other measures, “freez[ing] of all demolition orders of structures and projects built to meet the basic needs of Palestinian inhabitants;[agree to] accelerate the process of permit issuance for existing and new quarries; allow the PA to build and maintain public service facilities; allow the development of Palestinian-owned land for industrial, tourism, agricultural, water and transport projects.”
The difficult political component is expected to concentrate on the need to reach an agreement on security and borders first, and it is believed that Kerry will place a major emphasis on the so-called Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 that is based on an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders with comparable and mutually-agreed land swaps.
Speaking after meeting with Arab representatives last month, Kerry reiterated his belief that the Arab Initiative is good for Israel.
Palestinians and Israelis are waiting to see what will be the outcome of Secretary Kerry’s work, as are officials from around the world. “We respect him, we support him and are waiting to see the outcome to work with him,” a senior European official said.