Israel PM slams PLO officials as Kerry bids to rescue talks

Kerry's arrival in the region late Tuesday for meetings with both sides comes amid growing indications the US-brokered peace talks that resumed in late July are on the brink of collapse.
 
Tuesday talks in Jerusalem between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators broke down in a row over settlements, with PLO negotiators accusing Israeli officials of trying to discredit the Palestinian leadership by linking new construction plans with the staged release of 104 prisoners.
 
"There was an explosion in the meeting," according to one Palestinian official close to the talks who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive discussions under a US-imposed media blackout.
 
Netanyahu played down Palestinian concerns at a meeting with Kerry in Jerusalem, accusing them of avoiding tough decisions and calling on the US to get the negotiations back on track.
 
"I am concerned about progress because I see the Palestinians continuing with incitements, to create artificial crises ... and run away from historic decisions that are needed to make a genuine peace," he told Kerry, according to a statement from his office.
 
The top US diplomat voiced confidence the two sides could reach the peace deal that has eluded them for decades if they were prepared to "make real compromises and hard decisions."
 
"There are always difficulties, always tensions. I am very confident of our ability to work through them," he told reporters after the meeting.
 
Since peace negotiations began in July, Israel has announced plans to build thousands of homes in illegal settlements located in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
 
Last week, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Israel to "end all settlement activity, including natural growth," while British Minister Hugh Robertson said in a statement that settlements are "illegal under international law, undermine trust and threaten the viability of the two-state solution."
 
Kerry will head to Bethlehem later on Wednesday for talks with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, who was also expected to drive home the divisive issue of settlements.
 
He will then return to Jerusalem to meet Israeli President Shimon Peres before a private dinner with Netanyahu.
 
Local media had on Tuesday reported that Israeli negotiators sought to have the separation wall that cuts through the West Bank serve as the border of a future Palestinian state.
 
Netanyahu has rejected any return to the 1967 lines as "indefensible", saying it would not take into account the "demographic changes on the ground" - a clear euphemism for illegal Jewish settlements.
 
Senior PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo said this week that Israel is not engaging in peace talks with PLO negotiators.
 
"There is one party negotiating, and that is us, while the other party is not proposing anything that goes in line with international legitimacy and law," Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio.
 
Israel "responds to us not at the negotiating table, but with its bulldozers, settler hooliganism and all kinds of violations in Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque and everywhere else, " he added.
 
Previous plans to build there were announced during a March 2010 visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, sparking outrage in Washington, which had been trying to revive peace talks at the time.