Kerry struggles to keep Middle East peace talks on track

US Secretary of State John Kerry is struggling to keep the faltering Middle East peace process on track through shuttle diplomacy as Israeli and Palestinian leaders indulged in a fresh verbal spat, casting a shadow on a possible deal.
But Kerry, on his tenth visit to the region since March last year, said yesterday he remained "hopeful" that Israel and the Palestinians could achieve a deal in the short term, Israel's Ha'aretz daily reported.
Kerry, whose shuttle diplomacy succeeded in breaking the three-year deadlock in talks between the two sides in July, has been pushing the two sides to reach an agreement ahead of an April deadline after direct talks were launched last year to forge an accord within nine months.

Amid deep mistrust, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first launched the tirade against Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas for welcoming Palestinian prisoners released by the Jewish state under the US-brokered deal.
"To glorify the murders of innocent women and men as heroes is an outrage," he said during a press conference with Kerry before the latter visited the West Bank town of Ramallah to meet Abbas yesterday.
Hitting back, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that even if Abbas were Mother Teresa, the Israelis would find a way to accuse him of terrorism so that they would not have to accept the Palestinians' demand for a state.

"If Mother Teresa was Chairperson of the Palestinian people and Montesquieu was the Chairman of the Parliament and Thomas Jefferson was president and Prime Minister and favoured a Palestinian state on the '67 borders and Jerusalem as its capital and resolving the refugee issue, our partners (Israel) would describe them as terrorists and say they should get rid of them," Erekat told Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

As if the verbal spat between the two sides was not enough, senior Republican Senators visiting Israel expressed concerns over the country's security while Palestinians demonstrated against Kerry's mediation, doubting its fairness.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu has serious, serious concerns about the plan that has been presented to him - whether it be the ability of Israel to defend its borders, the viability of a Palestinian state and their intentions and their actions toward the state of Israel, and particularly on the overall security," Sen. John McCain of Arizona, accompanied by two more Republican senators, told reporters here.

Kerry is now seeking to overcome concerns of the two sides about a "framework" to guide negotiations towards a lasting peace agreement.