BICOM

In light of the recent violence which has killed 11 Israelis, US Secretary of State John Kerry held a four-hour meeting yesterday in Berlin with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kerry will now travel to the Middle East where he is set to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to calm the situation. Following his meeting with Netanyahu yesterday, Kerry said that he has “a cautious measure of optimism that there may be some things that could be, in the next couple of days, put on the table.” He said that he hopes to encourage all sides “that there is a way to defuse the situation and begin a way forward.”

Although Kerry did not specify what concrete measures are possible, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said that “constructive proposals” had been discussed during the “lengthy” talks and suggested that there are “steps Israel could take to reaffirm yet again the continued commitment to maintaining the status quo” at the Temple Mount. The holy site has been a focal point of the violence and Israeli leaders, especially Netanyahu have repeatedly publicly denied Palestinian accusations that Israel wishes to alter the status quo, which permits only Muslim prayer.

Netanyahu once again accused Abbas of stoking the violence with incitement. He said, “There is no question that this wave of attacks was driven directly by incitement, the incitement of Hamas, the incitement of the Islamist movement in Israel and the incitement, I am sorry to say, from President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.” Turning his attention to global leaders, Netanyahu added “I think it is time for the international community to state clearly to President Abbas: Stop spreading lies about the state of Israel.”

Netanyahu also met yesterday with European Union (EU) foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, who told reporters that, “We discussed concrete ways to de-escalate the situation on the ground and to guarantee the status quo in the holy sites.”