Kerry tells US Jewish leaders he fears for Israel’s future if no peace deal
Kerry tells US Jewish leaders he fears for Israel’s future if no peace deal | The Times of Israel.
At White House meet, secretary highlights Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation, demographic challenges; Jewish leaders call for Abbas to moderate tone in upcoming UN speech
Secretary of State John Kerry and an elite US diplomatic team met with a small group of American Jewish leaders at the White House Thursday night to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that resumed last month.
An optimistic-sounding Kerry asked the Jewish leaders for their help in supporting the newly restarted talks, The Times of Israel learned, saying that he feared for Israel’s future if a peace deal is not reached.
Kerry told the fewer than two-dozen representatives of Jewish organizations that he really believes that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas realize that there is a strategic imperative to act now. He noted that Israel faces the threat of diplomatic isolation and a demographic clock.
A number of the Jewish leaders pressed Kerry on Abbas’s upcoming address to the United Nations General Assembly. They expressed hope that Abbas would change the tone of his rhetoric during his speeches to the world body — a good-faith gesture to demonstrate outward Palestinian willingness to engage in peace talks. One observer noted that Kerry seemed receptive to the idea.
Other Jewish representatives pushed for Kerry to ask Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Kerry told the leaders that one of the lynchpins of the current peace process is the separation of Israel’s security assurances from the general negotiations, assurances he said would be guaranteed in a separate agreement with the US.
The security track is being worked out under the auspices of retired Marine Corps general John Allen, who is currently Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s special adviser for the Middle East Peace.
Kerry also emphasized the economic development track being pursued with the Palestinians, particularly the encouragement of private investment in the West Bank. The secretary of state, who announced less than a month ago the resumption of talks, said that this round of negotiations could be separated into five different components: security, economic development, international outreach, public outreach in the form of an open appeal for support, and the diplomatic negotiations themselves. These components, Kerry told the Jewish leaders, were effective when used in concert with the others.
Kerry did most of the talking during the 90-minute meeting, but he was joined by nearly a dozen administration officials including White House Special Envoy for Mideast Peace Martin Indyk, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, senior adviser Frank Lowenstein and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Ben Rhodes.
Indyk remained silent, and Rice only spoke briefly, focusing on how deeply President Barack Obama was committed to the peace process.
The meeting was not listed on the public calendar for the White House, where it was held, or for the State Department. Unlike at the previous meeting with US Jewish leadership, held in March prior to Obama’s visit to Israel, the president was not present at Thursday’s talk.
The Jewish leadership was a virtual who’s who of the American Jewish community, representing a broad political spectrum, including representatives from the Orthodox Union as well as J Street, and including leaders such as the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman and the Conference of Presidents’ Malcolm Hoenlein.
This meeting was a soft sell for most attendees, without Kerry pressing them to take the message of support for peace talks home to their respective communities. The hard sell — a more organized push to market the peace talks to centrist US Jews — is anticipated to come later in August, in the run-up to Rosh Hashanah.
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WarSclerotic 
August 9, 2013 at 2:45 PM
US-sponsored Israel-Palestinian interim peace talks near moment of decision
According to the information reaching debkafile, Kerry’s motive in summoning American Jewish leaders to the White House was his belief that progress in the negotiations has brought the Israeli prime minister close to a crossroads. He will soon face a decision to reshuffle his cabinet and replace ministers who would oppose the terms of the interim accord shaping up with Palestinians. For this step, he would find the support of American Jewry helpful.
Netanyahu will soon need to present the leaders of the pro-settlement Israel Beteinu and Bayit Yehudi parties with the choice of backing him up all the way to the accord with the Palestinians to which the US Secretary is steering at speed, or quitting the government coalition. The same question will be put to Netanyahu’s own Likud party members.
http://www.debka.com/article/23183/US-sponsored-Israel-Palestinian-interim-peace-talks-near-moment-of-decision
August 9, 2013 at 2:50 PM
The trap is closing.
August 9, 2013 at 3:03 PM
He noted that Israel faces the threat of diplomatic isolation and a demographic clock.
Black mail
August 9, 2013 at 3:27 PM
Kerrys fucked in the head he has PTSD
August 9, 2013 at 3:05 PM
Kerry is a walking failure.
August 9, 2013 at 3:51 PM
Kerry, like all the other Obama nominations is a mediocrity, a man who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. All the Obama’s nominations, starting with Jay Carney – A Philosophical Monkey With Glasses – and up to Hillary ”Chuck” Clinton, are conclusive failures, while the only failure bigger than them is Obama, the father of all the failures.
August 9, 2013 at 3:42 PM
Rotter is reporting that certain military preparations are made by the Americans and the Saudis forces in northern Jordan, near the southern border with Syria.
The target is the city of Daraa, southern Syria, very close to the Jordan border. The action will be followed by a no fly zone in south Syria. Rotter is maintaining restrain all along this report and will check these news with more sources.
I personally think that it might be plausible and suiting Obama to take a ”little” city in southern Syria, involving himself and showing support but not too much; its like walking ”with” and feeling ”without”.
(in Hebrew it sounds better, hehe). Anyhow, the news from Syria will surely continue to surprise by a daily base.
August 9, 2013 at 4:53 PM
This might eplin that it was suposedly russia last chance berore things got nasty
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-08/putin-laughs-saudi-offer-betray-syria-exchange-huge-arms-deal
August 9, 2013 at 3:54 PM
Besides a minority of Fatah, exactly who is Israel supposed to make peace with? I note that J Street was represented. Were there any allies of Israel at the meeting?
August 9, 2013 at 5:13 PM
The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Peace whit one little fraction can give some nice opportunities.
August 9, 2013 at 4:03 PM
Very soon, everybody will forget about those ”peace talks” ( Bibi was very clever to enter, because he knew that the exit will be for free); and what will cause everybody to forget this ”important” event?
The showdown in Egypt will be so big, so grave, that its hard even now to predict all its implications.
August 9, 2013 at 4:14 PM
Luis i re blog a lot of your info at a Dutch blog
August 9, 2013 at 5:12 PM
Thank you, Joop, I really appreciate this. I hope it will give some new angles to the readers there.
August 9, 2013 at 6:25 PM
I am totally embarrassed we have folks like John Kerry representing the USA.
http://patriotpost.us/archives/petitions/9
August 9, 2013 at 7:42 PM
Don,t worry i would not hold it against you.