JERUSALEM (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry could be spending a lot of time shuttling back and forth between Washington and the Middle East in the months ahead.
Kerry's on his third trip to Jerusalem in the last two weeks today, looking to get Israeli and Palestinian leaders to agree to a new and ambitious peace process. It involves reviving parts of a plan embraced by the Arab world a decade ago -- a plan that would have provided Israel with recognition throughout the Arab world, in exchange for a pullout of territory conquered in 1967.
Kerry is committing himself to an effort that could continue for months. He met today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli and Palestinian officials. Yesterday, he sat down for one-on-one talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The secretary of state told reporters that he's convinced that the mistrust that has built up between the Israelis and Arabs can be broken down.
His foremost goal is to restart direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that have hardly taken place at all over the last four and a half years.
