John Kerry heads for West Bank

Kerry to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, according to US and Palestinian officials.

US secretary of state John Kerry at Mafraq air base after visiting the Zaatari refugee camp. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AP

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was flying to the West Bank on Friday to increase his efforts to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table after almost five years, a US official said, despite deep differences between the two sides.
Kerry was planning to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the official said. On Friday morning he met chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman and then scheduled the short helicopter flight to Ramallah, shifting his campaign to renew the peace talks into diplomatic overdrive.
A Palestinian official confirmed that Kerry would meet Abbas on Friday afternoon. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief reporters.
At a stormy late-night meeting on Thursday, Palestinians balked at dropping a main condition for talks with the Israelis, demanding a guarantee that negotiations on borders between a Palestinian state and Israel would be based on the ceasefire line that held from 1949 until the 1967 war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The demand casts a cloud of uncertainty over months of US mediation efforts because Israel rejects preconditions.
Hoping to push Israelis and Palestinians toward talks, President Barack Obama asked Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to work with Kerry "to resume negotiations with Palestinians as soon as possible", according to a statement released by the White House late on Thursday.
Previous Israeli governments twice negotiated on the basis of the 1967 lines, but no peace accord was reached. Besides disagreeing over how much hand to trade and where, the two sides failed to agree on other key issues, including dividing Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Netanyahu has given lukewarm endorsement to the idea of a Palestinian state without delineating his vision of boundaries, while demanding that the Palestinian recognise Israel as the Jewish state. Palestinians reject that, concerned that it would undermine their claims that millions of refugees and their descendants have the right to return to their original homes, lost in the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's creation. Israel has rejected that claim outright.
After their late-night meeting the Palestinians did not bring up their often-repeated demand that Israel stop building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before talks could resume. One official said that if Israel accepts the 1967 lines as a basis that would make most of the settlements illegitimate.
While Kerry has not publicised details of his plan, an Arab League decision on Wednesday to endorse his proposal raised speculation that the Palestinians would agree. Abbas traditionally has sought the blessing of his Arab brethren before making any major diplomatic initiative.
Ahmed Majdalani, a Palestinian leader, said Kerry has proposed holding talks for six to nine months focusing on the key issues of borders and security arrangements.
He said Kerry would endorse the 1967 lines as the starting point of negotiations and assured the Palestinians that Israel would free 350 prisoners gradually in the coming months. The prisoners would include around 100 men that Israel convicted of crimes committed before interim peace accords were signed in 1993. Israel has balked at freeing these prisoners in the past because many were convicted of deadly attacks.
Although the plan does not include a settlement freeze, it was not clear whether Israel would accept any reference to the 1967 lines.
Israeli cabinet minister Yair Lapid said it was "too early to say" whether Kerry had found a formula for talks.
"Secretary Kerry has done a tremendous job in trying to put both sides together," he said. "Of course Israel is more than willing and has expressed its agreement to go back to the negotiation table, but apparently it's going to take a little more time."
While Israel has balked at Palestinian demands, the international community has largely rallied behind the Palestinian position on borders and Jewish settlements