Netanyahu and Kerry meet in Berlin as terror in Israel continues

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry met in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the ongoing violence and spiraling tensions that have so far claimed the lives of 10 Israelis in a spate of stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks over the past six weeks against civilians and security forces in Israel and the West Bank.

Over 45 Palestinians have been killed in this latest round, at least 25 of them attackers.

The two leaders, who last met in New York at the end of September, are holding talks which are expected to last several hours, a US diplomat said.

After Berlin, Kerry will head off to Vienna, where he will see the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia about Syria on Friday. He then plans to visit Amman, where he will meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah. A stop in Saudi Arabia is also envisioned.

US officials have yet to detail any American plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian unrest that erupted a month ago over Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.

The site in question is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and home to the biblical Temples. For Muslims, it is the Noble Sanctuary, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam and a key national symbol for the Palestinians. The site, captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war, is a frequent flashpoint of violence.

The Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to change the longstanding “status quo” at the site, which allows Jews to visit but not to pray. They point to a growing number of Jewish visitors who seek an expanded Jewish presence and prayer rights at the site.

Netanyahu says there are no plans to change the status quo, and that the Palestinian allegations are slanderous incitement. He says the hostile rhetoric, and incendiary videos making the rounds on social media, are fueling the violence. On Wednesday, he said the mufti of Jerusalem during World War II, noted Nazi sympathizer Haj Amin al-Husseini, told Adolf Hitler to exterminate the Jews.

Into this volatile mix, Kerry is now wading.

He has said he wants “clarity” about the status quo about the site, but officials say he does not believe it needs to be codified. Nor does he support a French proposal for an international presence on the Temple Mount.

The State Department has endorsed the Jewish state’s position on the status quo, saying it was being maintained and that all Kerry “wants to do is make sure that that maintenance continues.”

Efforts are similarly vague in Syria, where the U.S. has failed repeatedly to convince Russia to stop supporting the Assad government.

The administration has held to its position that Assad must go but could be part of a political transition.

Despite all the U.S. talk about political transition, Syrian peace talks have ceased. The US is trying to forge a strategy with Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia — and potentially even Iran — to halt the fighting between Assad’s military and moderate opposition forces, allowing all sides to concentrate on defeating the Islamic State group.

But even as Moscow discusses the possibility, it is pressing ahead with airstrikes around the country that the US and others say are predominantly targeting US-backed rebels and not Islamic State militants or other extremist groups. And Russia has never publicly said that Assad should leave power.

AFP contributed to this report