“One of the main obstacles in the talks up until now is believed to be the issue of whether Israel will retain a security presence along the Jordan River after any agreement,” according to Kerry.
He came to Israel armed with retired Gen, John Allen, who holds the golden key for “ensuring the security arrangement that we might contemplate in the context of this process will provide for greater security for Israel.”
“General Allen and I provided Prime Minister Netanyahu and his military leadership with some thoughts about that particular security challenge,” Kerry said.
Netanyahu played along with Kerry and said nothing controversial.
“We discussed the danger to the world posed by Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability,” the Prime Minister stated after Thursday’s meeting. “We believe that, in a final deal, unlike the interim deal, it is crucial to bring about a final agreement about the termination of Iran’s military nuclear capability. I have expressed my concern since Geneva that the sanctions would begin to unravel, and I think steps must be taken to prevent further erosions of sanctions.
“Now, on the Palestinian issue, I want to say that Israel is ready for a historic peace, and it’s a peace based on two states for two peoples. It’s a peace that Israel can and must be able to defend by itself with our own forces against any foreseeable threat. We don’t need artificial crises. What we need is not grandstanding, but understanding and agreements and that requires hard and serious hard work.”
Round one of this trip is over.
Kerry went to Ramallah to speak with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and round two will take place in Jerusalem on Friday.