The U.S. State Dept. announced Thursday that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas will meet with Jordanian King Abdullah in Amman tonight.
The meeting will will “focus on ways to restore calm and de-escalate tensions in Jerusalem,” according to the State Dept.
Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority did not announce the meeting, a strong indication that Kerry forced their hand.
King Abdullah met with Abbas Wednesday and re-bluffed his phony desire to establish the Palestinian Authority as a country based on the Temporary Armistice Lines of 1949.
The last thing he wants is a Palestinian Authority state on his border without Israel soldiers separating PA terrorists from Jordan.
“His Majesty and President Abbas stressed their keenness to sustain coordination and consultation regarding different challenges, circumstances and current developments in the region, particularly those in the city of Jerusalem,” reported the Petra News Agency.
The Temple Mount and Al Aqsa mosque were a focus of the talks amid the PA effort to keep Jews off the holy site.
If Kerry wants to talk with Netanyahu, and Abbas and the King about tensions around the Temple Mount, he will be stepping in more territory about which he knows nothing and where he only can leave a mess for others to wipe up.
Another issue is building of homes for Jews in Palestinian Authority-claimed areas of Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, moves which the State Dept. hammers away at every day as escalating tension without mentioning incitement by Abbas’ praise for “martyrs” who run over Jews.
Given Kerry’s hearing impairment, it is unlikely that he will walk away from the meeting without any new information.
This may be Kerry’s last useless attempt to stop Abbas from trying to get the necessary two-thirds approval of the United Nations Security Council for recognition as a member state, based on its self-defined borders.
He could threaten Netanyahu that the United States will not veto such a decision if Israel does not stop aggravating Arabs and President Barack Obama by building homes, which threaten world peace more than Ebola, the Islamic State and the Iranian nuclear threat.
There may not be much news out of the meeting, but it is great for those who love cheap theater.
If Kerry is smart, he will indeed issue an ultimatum to tell all sides to toe the American line. After the refusal, he could gracefully wipe his hands clean and go back to worrying about what he will do for a living in two years.
But is Kerry so smart?