US Secretary of State John Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday as he pushed a framework for Middle East peace talks, amid growing tension with the Palestinians.
The two met in Jerusalem, launching what is expected to be an intense four days of shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Kerry’s meeting with Netanyahu, which included a joint dinner, took five hours, officials said.
The top US diplomat will be meeting with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman on Friday morning before meeting again with Netanyahu, and later in the day heading to the west Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.
Kerry has faced fierce opposition from both sides to any compromise on mostly irreconcilable demands since he kick-started direct negotiations in July after a three-year hiatus.
His latest visit, the 10th since March, comes with Palestinian and Israeli leaders accusing each other of lacking serious commitment to achieving a lasting peace.
“I plan to work with both sides more intensely in these next days to narrow the differences on a framework that will provide the agreed guidelines for permanent status negotiations,” Kerry told reporters before meeting Netanyahu.
“An agreed framework would be a significant breakthrough.”
Netanyahu repeated that he did not believe the Palestinians were taking the process seriously.
“Unfortunately, given the actions and words of Palestinian leaders, there’s growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are committed to peace,” he said.
“A few days ago in Ramallah, President Abbas embraced terrorists as heroes… How can he say that he stands against terrorism when he embraces the perpetrators of terrorism and glorifies them as heroes?”
Netanyahu was referring to Israel’s release of the third of four batches of 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture agreed under the talks process.
The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, announced late in the night it had recently arrested four Palestinians who were involved in the December 22 bombing of a bus near Tel Aviv, in which a police sapper was lightly wounded.
According to a statement, the four were members of the Islamic Jihad from the West Bank city Bethlehem, one of whom has a brother who serves in the Palestinian Authority security forces. The Shin Bet said ten others involved in the cell’s activity were apprehended.
Netanyahu said in a statement the arrests were proof of “direct involvement of PA people in terror. It is time (Abbas) ceases celebrating with terrorists, and leads his people to peace.”
As the meeting between Kerry and Netanyahu continued on Thursday night, dozens of Israelis were protesting outside the US diplomat’s hotel for the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy analyst detained in 1985 for supplying Israel with secret documents and imprisoned in the US since.
A State Department official said ahead of Kerry’s trip that he aims to hammer out a framework to guide the sides through the tough final months of talks, due to end in late April.
Kerry and his team hope to have the framework in place soon, addressing the core issues.
These include the contours of the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem which both sides claim as their capital, and Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinians want borders based on the 1967 lines that existed before the Six-Day War, when Israel captured the West Bank, including now annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
But Israel wants to retain existing settlements it has built inside occupied Palestinian territory since then.