Cabinet minister: Still a chance for peace breakthrough

As US Secretary of State John Kerry made his way to Ramallah Sunday morning for a third meeting in as many days with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz said there is still a chance Kerry’s efforts will lead to a breakthrough to resuming direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We are at a very sensitive crossroads now,” Peretz told Israel Radio. “This morning may still produce results. There is no reason to pour cold water over the process.”

Peretz, who is Tzipi Livni’s number two in the Hatnua party, said that one of the critical issues currently on the table, following Kerry’s late night meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday, was the timing of Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners. “It is clear the matter of releasing prisoners will arise in talks; the question now is whether they will be released before or after talks resume.”

Kerry and Netanyahu talked for over six hours, in a meeting also attended by legal, military and other officials, including Livni, who is charged with managing talks with the Palestinians.

According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, Abbas placed the release of 127 prisoners — including 25 Arab residents of Israel and East Jerusalem — as a key demand to Kerry in the two leaders’ meeting on Saturday. Netanyahu, who reportedly fears that Abbas will blow up talks after his demand is fulfilled, agreed to release them but only in a gradual fashion and only after talks get under way, reports said.

“I think that Israel, coming from a position of strength, can afford to make some concessions to the Palestinians,” said Peretz.

Peretz conceded that Netanyahu was in a difficult situation politically, with his own party and other right-leaning coalition partners pressuring him not to give in to Palestinian demands, but said the only reason Hatnua was in the coalition was to advance the peace process and that it would use all the leverage it could muster to see that process go ahead. Peretz also urged members of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party to put their weight behind the push for peace and provide a countermeasure to the right-wing flank of the government.

“There is no reason to give in to the extremists,” Peretz said.

Over the weekend, Kerry engaged in breakneck shuttle diplomacy to coax Israel and the Palestinians back into peace talks, meeting three times with Netanyahu and twice with Abbas. Though no official word came out of Jerusalem, Ramallah or Washington, statements by officials — both named and unnamed — painted a picture of intensive back and forth deliberations with the end goal being a four-way summit in Amman, Jordan.

There was speculation both that talks were going well and that they were headed nowhere, but Kerry’s decision to fly from Jerusalem to Ramallah to see Abbas again before he leaves the region was an indication that the secretary believes there is a chance of bringing the two sides together.

“They’re saying a four-way summit, did you hear that?” Netanyahu asked Kerry during a photo-op before his latest meeting with Kerry.

“I did,” Kerry replied.

Kerry was expected to deliver a statement summing up his visit on Sunday afternoon.

A government minister close to the talks said that aside from the matter of the prisoners, the main issue holding up a breakthrough was the Palestinians’ demand that Israel freeze building over the Green Line, which Netanyahu refuses to agree to.

Before Kerry’s meeting with Netanyahu, Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan said he didn’t think a breakthrough was in the works.

“I know the secretary is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu for the third time this evening, after meeting with Abbas earlier in the day. But as far as I know, Abbas is still demanding the same preconditions, which we have no intention of meeting,” Erdan told Channel 2′s “Meet the Press” on Saturday evening.

Azzam al-Ahmad, an official with Abbas’ Fatah movement who met with the Palestinian president Saturday night, was not optimistic either.

He told the Voice of Palestine Sunday morning that no progress had been made in Kerry’s efforts concerning the Palestinians demand that Israel freeze settlements, recognize the pre-1967 lines as the basis for a Palestinian state, and release prisoners.

“Kerry is doing his best and we appreciate these efforts, but so far he didn’t bring anything from the Israelis on our demands of the settlement freeze, recognizing the ’67 borders and releasing the pre-Oslo prisoners,” he said. He was referring to prisoners held since before the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.

“President Abbas told Kerry he wants him to continue his efforts but we can’t wait forever,” al-Ahmad said.