Israel, Palestinians Agree to Relaunch Peace Process

Officials to Meet in Washington to Work Out Details, U.S. Secretary of State Announces

Israel and the Palestinians agreed to restart direct peace talks after more than three years, as months of diplomacy by Secretary of State John Kerry showed tangible, if tenuous, signs of progress.
Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials will meet in Washington within the next two weeks to establish a time frame and other details before a more formal relaunch of the Middle East peace process, Mr. Kerry said at a news conference late Friday in Jordan.

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Mandel Ngan / Reuters

John Kerry meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Friday.

"I'm pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement. This is a significant, and welcome, step forward," Mr. Kerry said. "We know that the challenges will require difficult choices in the days ahead. Today. I am hopeful."
The agreement to get the two sides to discuss the framework for talks marks a watershed in peace efforts—a fact that underscores the abiding pessimism about the prospects for peace among Israelis, Palestinians and veteran diplomats in the region.
There are no plans yet for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—between whom Mr. Kerry has been shuttling for more than three months in an attempt to kick-start the talks. Yet both leaders face domestic political strains that could compel them to stick with the negotiations.

"It's unlikely that either side would've agreed to talk if they didn't believe that there was at least some prospect of improving their position," said Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. "Most journeys have a start and this one has been waiting a long time to start again."
Numerous obstacles remain. The Palestinians are bitterly divided, with the Hamas movement that rules Gaza opposed to peace talks while Mr. Abbas's Fatah Party rules in the West Bank, but lacks broad support within the territory. Much of the Palestinian leadership had been reluctant to resume negotiations that most Palestinians believe are designed to boost Israel's international standing.

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Jaafar Ashtiyeh/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A Palestinian yelled at Israeli soldiers on Friday, even as U.S. Secretary of State Kerry said peace talks would resume.

Mr. Netanyahu, meanwhile, heads a government in which those opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state or any curtailing of building in Jewish West Bank settlements hold substantial sway. Though international pressure has mounted on Mr. Netanyahu to move more aggressively in pursuit of peace, domestic pressure is low in Israel, where memories are fresh of Palestinian suicide attacks against Israeli cities after the Oslo peace process collapsed in 2000.
But some of the biggest obstacles to peace also offer flickers of hope. Mr. Abbas's fragile domestic political standing and his power struggle with Hamas could be an incentive for him to make an all-or-nothing play for peace to boost his own legitimacy both at home and abroad.
On the Israeli side, significant portions of the country's security and political establishment have evolved in recent years to view peace with the Palestinians as a strategic imperative for Israel's long-term survival as both a Jewish and democratic state.
"There are benefits for each side to come to the table irrespective of the situation," said David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. That benefit could be as simple as avoiding the blame if Mr. Kerry's peace efforts fail, he said.
The European Union's decision to ban investment in Israeli institutions based in disputed territories has also unnerved Mr. Netanyahu, who fears potentially greater isolation without a peace process, said U.S. officials.
Mr. Abbas had been balking at returning to talks, and sought several guarantees from the U.S. first, Palestinian leaders said on Thursday.
Among them were an Israeli agreement to freeze the construction of Jewish homes in disputed territories during the duration of the talks and a strict deadline for reaching an agreement. Mr. Abbas has also sought written guarantees that the talks would be framed around the creation of an independent Palestinian state based on Israel's borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with land swaps between the two sides to define the two states' final borders.

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Reuters

Sculptures are seen in front of an Israeli settlement.

After Palestinian leaders rebuffed Mr. Kerry's proposal on Thursday, the secretary of state—on his sixth trip to the Mideast since taking his post in February—returned to Ramallah on a Jordanian military helicopter on Friday to make a last-ditch effort to sway Mr. Abbas.
U.S. officials said that meeting with Mr. Abbas late Friday was crucial to forging an agreement.
Mr. Kerry told the Palestinian leader that he brought fresh pledges secured from Mr. Netanyahu during a two-hour phone call with the Israeli leader on Friday, a senior aide to Mr. Abbas said.
The secretary of state told Mr. Abbas that the Israeli government had agreed to quietly halt building in Jewish West Bank settlements, but wouldn't make any public announcement to that effect, according to the aide. He said Mr. Netanyahu had also pledged to release some Palestinian prisoners before the first day of talks in Washington.
Mr. Kerry gave Mr. Abbas his own guarantee that peace talks would resume on the basis of Israel's pre-1967 borders, the aide said.
A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, Mark Regev, said he could neither confirm nor deny those reports. Mr. Regev declined further comment on the resumption of talks.
Mr. Kerry didn't detail what terms the two sides agreed to in order to allow for the resumption of the talks, and declined to answer questions about the deal at the Amman news conference.
Among the officials taking part in this first round of negotiations will be Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323993804578616041362023764.html?mod=WSJWorld__LEFTTopStories