Kerry pushing Netanyahu on new "peace plan"; Netanyahu: 'No more prisoner releases for Abbas'

(WJD) Like an unwanted guest, John Kerry keeps showing up uninvited and unwelcome.

The U.S. secretary of state will meet Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington and reportedly spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Tuesday.

The subject of the Abbas-Kerry meeting will be a new peace plan outlined by Abbas, which calls for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank in three years and agree to Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. Abbas has presented his plan just weeks after Israel fought a bruising war with Hamas, which launched rockets from territory that Israel also evacuated not yet 10 years ago. Abbas has said if Israel does not accept his plan, he will sue Israeli leaders in international court and turn over management of the West Bank to the Israeli military.

Abbas is reportedly hoping that Kerry will pressure Israel to accede to his plan. In recent days, the Israeli governemnt has urged Abbas to give up his partnership with terror group Hamas and agree to a return to the negotiating table without preconditions.

(JPost) Just prior to the start of Operation Protective Edge, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that his government would not release any more Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorist acts as a gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Channel 2 reported on Tuesday.

Last year, Israel had agreed to a four-stage release of prisoners as part of the terms for the resumption of peace negotiations with Abbas's government, but the final stage was canceled after mutual recriminations between Jerusalem and Ramallah over the breakdown of the talks.

During his appearance before the Knesset panel in early July, Netanyahu commended Abbas' public condemnation of the abduction and murder of three yeshiva students by Hamas operatives near the West Bank town of Hebron.

Nonetheless, the premier is quoted by Channel 2 as saying that "Abu Mazen (Abbas' nom de guerre) will not receive another release of prisoners."

"Abu Mazen made some important statements in condemning the abduction," Netanyahu said. "But those statements contrast with the celebratory welcome that he staged for released terrorists, the salaries that he pays them, and the incitement [sanctioned by the PA]."

The release of prisoners and the freeze on construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank have been longstanding Palestinian conditions for a resumption of peace talks. With the Netanyahu government opposed to both measures, it is difficult to envision a return to negotiations in the near future, according to observers.

Netanyahu's comments to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is the latest indication that the government has no intention of embarking on any new diplomatic initiative as it relates to the Palestinian question.

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