Kerry's in Israel today - which I found in an Israeli and a Yemen newspaper

[karynnj]

Here is the Yemeni article

Israeli President Shimon Peres called Sunday for launching secret negotiating channels with the Palestinians, in addition to the other channels. Peres made his call during a meeting with visiting US Senator John Kerry, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Israeli media reports said Kerry's visit to Israel and Palestinian territories aimed at exercising pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to meet in Washington next month to launch direct negotiations.

Kerry, according to the Israeli radio, voiced relief for the Israeli government's measures to ease the siege on Gaza Strip.
<snip>
Israel wants to move to direct negotiations but the Palestinian Authority is refusing that and wants to see complete halt of settlements in occupied territories specially in Jerusalem, as well as setting a timeframe for the talks.

Here is the Israeli one - I didn't recognize the name, so I looked into it. Per wikipedia, it is the voice of the settlements and is said to be the voice of "religious Zionism". This is likely why their spin here is weird in places- and why I put the Yemen article first.

U.S. Senator John Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, visited President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Sunday and said, “Iran has not left anybody very much choice but to move down the road that we are going.” He refrerred to tougher sanctions on Iran but did not mention the military option.

“No one in the United States underestimates or mistakes the challenge that Iran is posing to the region,” Sen. Kerry added. “We have put some tough sanctions into place… and in the Senate; we just went further last week."

<snip - where they suggest that the Congress was more anti-Iran than the Obama administration. When, in fact, the Obama administration worked hard to get Russia and China aboard. >
“President Obama, I know, is very much looking forward to the meeting with the Prime Minister,” Sen. Kerry stated. “Let me begin by congratulating you.” Referring to Israel’s relaxing the partial land embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza, he added, “I think everyone in Congress, and in the administration, and in our country was pleased and excited by the steps that Israel has taken now. We are very sympathetic to your right to defend yourself… I personally visited Sderot, I know the problem of the rockets coming in, and how many have come in, this needs to change, and that’s what we are all working on.”
<snip>
President Peres told Kerry, “I do not believe that we can move without the leadership of the United States.… We are very grateful to the United States for its strong support of Israel. It is important to raise the level of discussion between Israel and the Palestinians from proximity talks to direct talks. It is also necessary to have a secret channel, because everything made public is no longer negotiations, but rather public relations.”

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news218246.htm


Still they beat the Boston papers, I learned that Brown is going to a picnic today and he says he will vote against the financial bill because the mean Democrats were sneaky putting in a 19 billion dollar tax on the big banks - he apparently missed that Obama publicly called for that in January and somehow they need to fund the regulations.

[wisteria]

1. A Thursday interview from Charlie Rose with Sen. Kerry. And, in it they speak about this trip.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11087

Senator Kerry appears about 5 minutes in, but the lead in is good also. I am beginning to love Charlie Rose, he asked important questions and let the Senator answer them in full. The entire interview is about 25 minutes and it is well worth watching IMO.

Thanks for finding the articles you found. I had no idea that Sen. Kerry was traveling to Israel this weekend. I suppose it is more important to hear about picnic Sen. Brown will be attending. What a marshmallow Brown is compared to Sen. Kerry.

[karynnj]

2. Wow - Thanks for that link

The Afghjanistan stuff is troubling - interesting how it seems to go back to Afghanistan's "governance" and security - and how they've not really stepped up enough on both.

I agree that Rose's comments were important - the comments on the role of Turkey by Kerry were fascinating. The best thing is that he mentioned he wanted Kerry back after he returned. Kerry's insights on both the Palestinians and the Israeli positions would be interesting to hear.

[wisteria]

3. Yes, I felt the same way. n/t

[Inuca]

4. Can't watch

What did he say about Turkey? Just saw this morning, the ticker on one of the news channels, that Turkey forbade Isaraeli planes to cross its air space.

[karynnj]

5. From memory, brief summary

Turkey has relationships with the US, Israel, and with Iran and wanted closer ties to Europe. Over the last two years, there is a shift with Turkey becoming a voice of the Arab street. (This sounded good as it diminishes Iran's voice there) Kerry then transitioned to Israel - and how the window is closing there on the two state solution.

[Inuca]

6. Thanks as always n/t