(Ha'aretz) Barak Ravid - U.S. Secretary of State Kerry sent feelers out to Prime Minister Netanyahu over the past two weeks as to the possibility of taking advantage of the end of the Gaza war to renew talks with the Palestinians. A senior Israeli official said that Kerry had even been considering coming to Israel to hold talks with Netanyahu and Abbas, but that he abandoned the idea after he realized that neither had any interest in talks at this time. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya'alon told Kerry's representative, Gen. John Allen, that their lesson from the war in Gaza is that the IDF has to have freedom of action in the West Bank and not only along the Jordan River. They made clear to Allen that the main focus of dialogue with the PA had to be mainly regarding Gaza and not a diplomatic arrangement in the West Bank. "Let's see how Abbas does first of all in Gaza and then we'll talk about other things," they told Allen.
2014-09-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive