Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday. Sources in Washington call the meeting "decisive", and say that it will help the US administration decide whether there is any point in continuing efforts to keep the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians going.
The sources say that Wednesday's talks are liable to be the third nail in the peace process's coffin. The first nail was the Palestinians' decision to apply to UN institutions, and the second was Israel's decision not to release the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners. The fourth nail will probably be an official White House statement in the near future announcing a time-out or "suspension" of the peace process, say the sources.
One source said that even Kerry was beginning to realize that it was impossible to untie the Gordian knot that the parties have tied. The Palestinians will not agree to withdraw their application to UN institutions, and Israel will not retract its refusal to release more Palestinian prisoners.
Liberman is arriving in Washington against a backdrop of assessments by the Obama administration that the efforts to maintain the peace process are yielding diminishing returns for the president and the secretary of state. President Barack Obama is due to meet Kerry and other top officials to decide whether to pursue the peace process, but it is not yet clear whether this meeting will be held before or after the talks with Liberman.
In speeches in New York earlier this week, Liberman showed no signs of flexibility. On the contrary, in a signal to the Americans, he reiterated his opposition to the release of Palestinian prisoners, and said that he preferred new elections over their release.
On Monday, Liberman met New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. The mayor's spokesman said that they discussed "the important role played by New York City’s growing Jewish population in the city’s culture, workforce and government."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 8, 2014
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