Kerry canceling planned trip to meet with Palestinian leader Abbas
Palestinian bid for stronger U.N. ties throws peace talks into confusion
(about 2 hours later)
JERUSALEM — U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry canceled a planned trip to Ramallah on Wednesday to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas amid new threats from the Palestinian leader to circumvent U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel.
JERUSALEM — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas defied American diplomats Tuesday by unilaterally signing more than a dozen United Nations treaties, endangering the U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Kerry had planned to make an emergency trip to Abbas’s West Bank headquarters in hopes of announcing a breakthrough, according to a senior State Department official.
With the stroke of a pen, a pall of confusion descended as diplomats could not answer basic questions about how and when the peace negotiations will continue. Efforts to forge a final and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians is a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s foreign policy.
Kerry’s cancellation of the meeting followed Abbas’s announcement Tuesday evening that he would sign the paperwork to allow the Palestinians to become parties to 15 U.N. treaties.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry scrapped plans to visit Abbas on Wednesday for what he had hoped would be a last push for a breakthrough after eight months of talks. He played down the severity of the breach and stressed that Abbas has said he intends to continue talking.
An official familiar with the talks had said earlier Tuesday that negotiators were discussing in broad outline a plan that would require Israel to slow settlement construction and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The Palestinians would in turn agree not to pursue recognition of a Palestinian state or other redress through the United Nations in order to keep alive the hope for a negotiated solution.
“It is completely premature tonight to draw any kind of judgment, certainly any final judgment, about today’s events and where things are,” Kerry told reporters in Brussels, where he was attending a NATO meeting.
Kerry’s cancellation followed Abbas’s announcement Tuesday evening that he would sign the paperwork to allow the Palestinians to become parties to 15 U.N. treaties and protocols about the rights of women, children, the disabled and civilians in wartime.
The signing occurred as U.S. and Israeli negotiators were working on a broad outline for a bold plan to extend the talks, which would require Israel to slow settlement construction in the West Bank and release hundreds of additional Palestinian prisoners.
The late-afternoon developments followed a report earlier Tuesday that the United States was considering the potential release of Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst convicted as an Israeli spy in 1987, as part of a broader deal that would keep the peace talks underway at least through 2015.
The Palestinians would in turn agree not to pursue recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state or other redress through the United Nations to keep alive hopes for a negotiated solution.
The Palestinians won “non-member observer state” status in the U.N. in 2012. Full membership was blocked in 2011.
The Palestinians won “non-member observer state” status in the U.N. in 2012. Full membership was blocked in 2011.
Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for Abbas, said that the Palestinians had agreed in July not to join U.N. organizations or sign U.N. treaties in exchange for Israel’s promise to release 104 Palestinian prisoners. Since the last group of 26 was not released as scheduled over the weekend, Abu Eid said, the Palestinians felt free to sign the documents.
The Israelis and Americans consider the United Nations a hostile forum for Israel, but one that will not help the Palestinians achieve an independent state beside Israel, which occupies the West Bank and enforces a partial naval and land blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the militant Islamic movement Hamas.
Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for Abbas, said the Palestinians had agreed in July not to join U.N. organizations or sign U.N. treaties in exchange for Israel’s promise to release 104 Palestinian prisoners. Since the last group of 26 was not released as scheduled over the weekend, Abu Eid said, the Palestinians felt free to sign the documents.
“We are not doing this against America, but we still don’t see other ways forward,” Abbas said in a speech to fellow members of the PLO. “We don’t see any reason not to go and sign these agreements, with the knowledge that we are on the path to reaching an agreement through talks and through peaceful popular resistance.”
“We are not doing this against America, but we still don’t see other ways forward,” Abbas said in a speech to fellow members of the PLO. “We don’t see any reason not to go and sign these agreements, with the knowledge that we are on the path to reaching an agreement through talks and through peaceful popular resistance.”
The Palestinians were also upset by an announcement publicized Tuesday that the Israeli Lands Authority is tendering an offer to sell to developers rights to build 708 housing units in the Jerusalem area community of Gilo, which sits on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed by the Jerusalem municipality.
It was clear that Abbas’s move blindsided the Americans, who were trying to broker a new deal for prisoner releases sought by the Palestinians and an extension of U.S.-backed peace talks. Kerry had detoured from stops in Europe to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and support for NATO to meet with Netanyahu and Palestinian negotiators.
It was not clear what the Obama administration would do next.
“This is a moment to be really clear-eyed and sober about this process,” Kerry said. “It is difficult. It is emotional. It requires huge decisions, some of them with great political difficulty, all of which need to come together simultaneously.”
Asked directly about whether the United States would release the spy Pollard early, Kerry said there is no agreement on any prisoner, including those at issue in the release that was supposed to come March 29. Pollard has served 29 years of a life sentence. He is eligible for parole in 2015.
Pollard’s early release would be a prize for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the White House had been gambling that it would provide President Obama with additional leverage in the U.S.-led effort to create an independent Palestinian state.
The Obama administration, like Republican and Democratic administrations before it, has publicly resisted strong Israeli lobbying to lighten Pollard’s sentence for spying for a friendly country. But Pollard’s fate was always presumed to be a potential element of any U.S.-backed solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Kerry threw responsibility for peace, and negotiations, back on the two leaders. The United States stands ready to help, Kerry said. “The leaders on both sides have to make the decisions, not us. It’s up to them to decide what they are going to do with each other, for each other, for the future, for the region, for peace.”
The Palestinians, though, were in a combative mood. They were upset by an announcement publicized Tuesday that the Israeli Lands Authority is tendering an offer to sell to developers the rights to build 708 housing units in the Jerusalem area community of Gilo, which sits on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed by the Jerusalem municipality.
To the Palestinians, Gilo is a Jewish settlement built on occupied land in East Jerusalem, and so is illegal by international law, though Israel disputes this.
To the Palestinians, Gilo is a Jewish settlement built on occupied land in East Jerusalem, and so is illegal by international law, though Israel disputes this.
The timing of the housing tenders, as news was breaking of a possible deal to keep the peace talks from collapsing, raised the ire of Palestinians and was suspicious to watchdog groups in Israel.
The timing of the housing tenders, as news was breaking of a possible deal to keep the peace talks from collapsing, raised the ire of Palestinians and was suspicious to watchdog groups in Israel.
“It looks like a provocation by the housing minister,” said Hagit Ofran, director of Settlement Watch, an Israeli group that monitors building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. “I looks like it was done to make John Kerry’s job more difficult.”
“It looks like a provocation by the housing minister,” said Hagit Ofran, director of Settlement Watch, an Israeli group that monitors building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. “I looks like it was done to make John Kerry’s job more difficult.”
Kerry, however, said that the process is far from over.
“It is completely premature tonight to draw any kind of judgment, certainly any final judgment, about today’s events and where things are,” Kerry said Tuesday after announcing the cancellation of the meeting.
Kerry stressed that Abbas intends to continue talking, and that “this is a moment to be really clear-eyed and sober about this process.”
“It is difficult. It is emotional. It requires huge decisions, some with them with great political difficulty, all of which need to come together simultaneously,” Kerry said. “Obviously it’s moments like this when we all need to remember exactly what brought us to this effort in the first place, what the goal is, and where everybody wants to end up.”
The late-afternoon developments followed the announcement earlier Tuesday that the United States was considering the potential release of a convicted Israeli spy as part of a broader deal that would keep the peace talks underway at least through 2015.
Kerry had been scheduled to return to Israel on Wednesday to continue the talks. An official familiar with some of the details of the proposal said that under one scenario, U.S. spy Jonathan Pollard could be released in time for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins in two weeks, and that Israel would in the same time frame release 26 Palestinian prisoners serving extensive sentences, including for murdering Israelis.
[READ: Why Israel wants Jonathan Pollard freed and the U.S. doesn’t]
The release of those prisoners was part of an earlier agreement, but Israel has since balked at following through. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the fluid nature of the talks, said Israel would free an additional 400 prisoners who have been charged with less violent crimes, including a number of minors, women, the ill and elderly.
Finally, “Israel would take a time-out on issuing new tenders for housing in the West Bank,” the official said. Israel would be free to continue to build roads, hospitals and other infrastructure in the West Bank, and all types of building could continue in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as a capital for their future state.
Pollard’s early release would be a prize for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the White House may be gambling that it would provide President Obama with additional leverage in the U.S.-led effort to create an independent Palestinian state.
The Obama administration, like Republican and Democratic administrations before it, has publicly resisted strong Israeli lobbying to lighten Pollard’s sentence for spying for a friendly country. But Pollard’s fate was always presumed to be a potential element of any U.S.-backed solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Kerry, accompanied by U.S. mediator Martin Indyk, met with Netanyahu for four hours Monday night, postponing a planned late-night meeting with Abbas. He met instead with the Palestinian chief negotiator.
The main subject of Kerry’s emergency visit here Monday — and the further meetings that had been planned for Wednesday — was how to extend peace talks after an impasse over a delay in the release of Palestinian prisoners. The separate question of Pollard’s fate, and what his release might buy for Israel and the United States, now hangs over the negotiations.
A U.S. official said that Pollard’s early release is under discussion but that no decision has been made. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing internal debate about a politically sensitive issue.
A senior Israeli government official confirmed that the Israelis were seeking Pollard’s early release as part of negotiations on extending talks.
His release now would probably require a grant of clemency from Obama, but the White House could also recommend an early release late next year, when Pollard becomes eligible for it. The political question for the White House is whether to spend the chit now, later — in what is expected to be a drawn-out peace negotiation — or at all.
Pollard, 59, was a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy who was arrested in 1985 after providing classified information to Israeli agents. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to life in prison and is eligible for release in November 2015. He has served almost 29 years.
Pollard has supporters in Israel across the political spectrum, from old leftists to ultra-nationalists. In 2002, when he was out of office, Netanyahu visited Pollard in prison.
His Israeli backers say that Pollard’s sentence was unduly harsh and that a defendant convicted of the same crime today would receive a maximum of 10 years. The Israelis also note that he was spying not for an enemy state but for an ally of the United States. Pollard, a U.S. citizen, was awarded Israeli citizenship in 1995.
Clemency has eluded Pollard for five U.S. administrations. During the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at Wye River, Md., in 1998, Netanyahu pushed for Pollard’s early release. Bill Clinton, president at the time, later wrote in his memoirs: “For all the sympathy Pollard generated in Israel, he was a hard case to push in America; he had sold our country’s secrets for money, not conviction, and for years had not shown any remorse.”
George Tenet, then director of the CIA, recalled in his memoirs telling Clinton in a one-on-one meeting that “if Pollard is released, I will no longer be the director of central intelligence in the morning.”
The deal, Tenet wrote, “would reward a U.S. citizen who spied on his own country, and once word got out (and that would take a nanosecond or two), I would be effectively through as CIA director. What’s more, I should be.”
In a January opinion piece in the New York Times, M.E. Bowman, a former Defense Department liaison officer to the Justice Department and the coordinator of an investigation into the damage done by Pollard, wrote that “there are no other Americans who have given over to an ally information of the quantity and quality that Mr. Pollard has” — material that included the top secret Radio Signal Notations manual, which listed all the known communications links then used by the Soviet Union.
U.S. diplomats have pressed the two sides to move beyond issues such as Pollard and Palestinian prisoners and focus on issues such as borders and security arrangements that would allow for two states for two peoples.
“Israelis and Palestinians have both made tough choices, and as we work with them to determine the next steps, it is important they remember that only peace will bring the Israeli and Palestinian people both the security and economic prosperity they all deserve,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday.
Netanyahu refused to carry out the scheduled release this past weekend of about two dozen Palestinian prisoners, and Abbas has threatened to walk out with a month to go before Kerry’s deadline for an outline of a peace deal.
Netanyahu told his Likud party Sunday that he will not allow the release unless Palestinians agree to extend talks, and he warned that he would refuse to do it at all unless assured that the release would be in Israel’s interest.
Over the weekend, reports circulated in the Hebrew and Arabic press that Netanyahu was prepared to offer to free an additional 400 prisoners, including many young offenders and those sentenced to short terms, if the Palestinians would continue the talks.
Kerry is seeking a face-saving way to keep the peace talks going, whether or not the prisoners are released soon. He would not predict the outcome of his efforts ahead of the talks.
“It’s really a question between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and what Prime Minister Netanyahu is prepared to do,” Kerry said Sunday night in Paris. “He’s working diligently, I know.”
Kerry was in Paris over the weekend for discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the crisis in Ukraine.
Officials close to Israel’s hard-line economics minister, Naftali Bennett, said the plan for peace Kerry has advanced until now “would lead to the dismantling of the current coalition government in Israel.”
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, a member of Bennett’s Jewish Home party, said he will advise his party to leave the coalition if more Palestinian prisoners are freed.
The prisoners are a highly emotional issue for both sides. Israelis say their government is freeing murderers to make peace, while the Palestinians view the prisoners as heroes — freedom fighters who have served long sentences in Israeli jails essentially as POWs.
Separately Monday, Israeli lawmaker Isaac Herzog, who as head of the Labor Party leads the parliamentary opposition, traveled to the Jordanian capital, Amman, and met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
“There is a one-time opportunity to reach an agreement in the Middle East, and we must find the formula that doesn’t blow up the negotiations,” the monarch told Herzog, according to a statement from Herzog’s office.
Herzog told Abdullah that his party and most of the opposition recognize the need to reach peace. Herzog has said that if Netanyahu’s coalition falls apart over the prisoner releases or the peace negotiations, the Labor Party would be ready to join the government under Netanyahu.
Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
