Secretary of State John Kerry may look like he’s pulling all the stops in pushing an Israeli-Palestinian deal, but, according to newly elected Labor party chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog, the U.S. can also read the writing on the wall. Herzog told Maariv that should there be no significant movement by the end of March, “it looks like the U.S. will take a step back and lower its profile” on the negotiations.

At the same time, Herzog was quick to point out, Kerry is filled with optimism regarding the chances of the current talks, telling his Israeli supporter on the left that both Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas have made brave and significant concessions.

Kerry’s main point in his meeting with Israel’s opposition leader Herzog was to find out how many hands would be raised in the Knesset in support of the Netanyahu concessions.

“He asked us not to enable the toppling of Netanyahu should he lose parts of the right” in his own coalition, “who will decide to vote against him once there’s progress in the talks,” a source in Herzog’s circle told Maariv.

The ever-present danger in volatile votes like this, is that once the prime minister loses the support of a sizeable portion of his own coalition members, the next move is in the hands of the opposition leader, who calls for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. At this point, if the same coalition members are angry enough, they add their votes to the opposition and take down the government.

Herzog wasn’t going to do that over the “peace process.” But the question remains whether Netanyahu really ahs the votes supporting the uprooting a constantly shifting number of Jews from Judea and Samaria (that number has gone from 150,000 down to 80,000 – neither of which have much reality to them, because the Palestinians want everything and the settlers won’t budge either, at least not without riot police bashing their faces in, which could spell the end of Netanyahu’s marriage with the right).

The same source said they were surprised by the seriousness of the current phase in the talks, and the fact that they now include all the “heavy” subjects, such as the right of return for Palestinians from around the world into Israel proper, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli control over the Jordan Valley, and, presumably, land swaps of settlements and Israeli Arab cities.

According to Maariv, based on information from senior political officials, Kerry plans to set up a direct meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas moments after the American “framework” document is finalized.

Kerry “is determined to hold a political summit meeting between the two leaders, as soon as he succeeds in getting agreements for that famous document,” the sources said.

Mind you, the “framework document” is expected to be merely a list of all the issues about which both sides disagree. Also, the document will not require the two sides to sign it, merely to acknowledge that, indeed, they disagree on those issues.

That’s not a lot to ask for. But there’s a reason for this strange document, which presents as success something which should have been the opening notes of the talks, rather than the sum total of their achievements after 7 months. Kerry intends to use this manufactured “success” as a basis for issuing a one-year extension to the talks, which are slated to conclude—based on the Secretary’s time limit—this February.

No one beats the State Department in smoke and mirror acts (Defense concentrates more on dog and pony).

Which makes our own headline here, based on the revelations in Maariv, about as hokum as anything the Secretary has been scheming. Kerry imposes a deadline, then creates a means to schlep out the deadline ad infinitum, then threatens to take his ball and go home in March, but by the time March rolls in the teams will be deep in phase two – and achieving nothing.

On Tisha B’Av evening, the Women in Green led their traditional march with a packed crowd (despite the late hour) around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

More than 1 million people have signed on to join a “virtual march” commemorating the Washington rally 25 years for the Soviet Jewry movement, according to a coalition marking the 1987 event.

Freedom 25, a coalition of 20 organizations, was aiming to attract 1 million people online to remember Freedom Sunday, when some 250,000 demonstrators gathered on Dec. 6, 1987 to demand that Jews be allowed to leave the Soviet Union. The rally advanced the Soviet Jewry movement, eventually allowing millions of Russian Jews to leave for the United States, Israel and elsewhere, and influenced U.S. foreign policy.

The coalition is hoping to educate a younger generation about the protest, which Freedom 25’s founders believe has not been given the significance it deserves.

“Despite such a record of unprecedented achievement and its enduring effect on contemporary society, ‘Freedom Sunday’ and the movement in general are for the most part a footnote in history,” Daniel Eisenstadt, a founder of Freedom 25 with Michael Granoff, both of Philadelphia, said in a statement. “They are not taught in any elementary or secondary schoolbooks; they aren’t even a part of the curriculum at Jewish schools.  In short, the history and lessons of the Soviet Jewry movement have slipped off the Jewish and national communal agenda.”

Freedom 25 will work with Jewish schools, camps and organizations to integrate education of the event.

Thousands of protesters are converging on Tahrir Square from points around Cairo to rally against President Mohamed Morsi’s constitutional declaration. One protester has died after inhaling teargas, Egypt Independent reports.

Dozens of parties and civil society groups called for the protests after Morsi’s declaration last Thursday which gave him tyrannical powers and declared the Constituent Assembly and the upper house, the Shura Council immune from judicial review.

A march that began in the Shubra neighborhood north of Cairo, led by former presidential candidate Khaled Ali, arrived in the square late Tuesday afternoon.

The old chants of the revolution were back in loud roars, as protesters were shouting, “The people want to bring down the regime,” as well as newer slogans such as, “Bread, freedom, down with Constituent Assembly.”

Several political parties also participated in the Shubra march, including the Free Egyptians party, the Social Democratic Party, the Adl Party, the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, and the Revolutionary Socialists Movement.

As he watched the march pass, one passer-by said, “It’s over. Tahrir is already full; Morsi will fall tonight.”

Protesters stressed that their large numbers fly in the face of the Brotherhood’s claim that they represent the majority, chanting, “They said we’re a minority, we showed them a million-man march.”

Coalition coordinator Ehab Moussa said, “Morsi’s latest decisions harm the tourism sector and investments in Egypt. Investors will run away after their trust in the Egyptian judiciary is shaken.”

University students and retired officers were also present in the square, and a Wafd Party march led by party head Al-Sayed al-Badawy had set off from its headquarters towards Tahrir.

“The constitutional declaration is an assault on statehood and the rule of law,” said Mohamed Shaaban, a lawyer. “The president is seeking seize all powers, but the people will not remain silent until he moves back.”

Meanwhile, dozens of Muslim Brotherhood students distributed statements at Ain Shams University reading, “The main goal of the recent constitutional declaration is Egyptians’ interests, in order to hold retrials of protesters’ killers and allocate pensions to the injured and martyrs, as part of their rights.”

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have come and gone. It is time to return my beloved Machzor to the bookshelf. Gifted to me by my beloved parents, of blessed memory, for my bat mitzvah, it is one of my most precious possessions.

When I daven from it, I stroke its silky pages. Its front and back book covers are long gone. The years melt away and I am a young girl again, clad in my new Yom Tov outfit and shiny black patent leather shoes. Soon I will skip home for Mommy’s yummy Yom Tov pot roast and mashed potatoes.

Sometime later in the afternoon, we will march hand in hand to the Hudson Bay for Tashlich, convinced, as Mommy assured us, that we would be much lighter after having thrown breadcrumbs into the water, symbolizing our aveirot.

Before we know it, Sukkot is on its way. We will join the other children at our rav’s sukkah to decorate it. How we got the paper chains to stretch from one end of the sukkah to the other is beyond me since I don’t recall a ladder helping the little ones reach the ceiling.

In those days, before the advent of global warming, Sukkot actually signaled the beginning of the cold, crisp weather.

The highlight was Simchat Torah – as my joy knew no bounds. As a teen having attended YU Seminars, I could not wait to showcase some of my new dance steps and wonder why everyone else seemed to be apathetic fuddy-duddies!

The years passed. I married and moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where sukkah-hopping kept us visiting one another from morning until evening. Following several years there we lived a military life. We were the chaplain and rebbetzin on a UK Air Force base. Our sukkah was lovingly built by the non-Jewish spouse of one of our congregants.

Returning to the present, as my children marry and set up their own homes and traditions, I hope that they will carry some fond memories of their own childhoods in Crown Heights. There, neighbors, especially in the building where we have lived for many years, have the opportunity to spend some quality time together for at least one precious week until, in the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt”l, “V’Yaakov halach ledarko.” We depart, taking all the strength from our spiritual work during Tishrei to hold us in good stead for the coming year.

Tens of thousands of Christians from 60 countries around the world are participating in Thursday’s annual “Feast of the Tabernacles” march around Jerusalem.

The march includes non-Jews who have converged on the city to participate in the Sukkot holiday.

Several Jerusalem roads will be closed between 1pm and 6pm, including Ben Tzvi, Ben Yehuda, King George, King David, Shmuel Hanagid, Hillel, Remez and Rabin streets.

Police are encouraging drivers not to attempt to enter Jerusalem from Route 1, but rather from route 443 or through the Arazim tunnel at Motza.  Vehicles carrying disabled persons’ permits will be able to enter the Old City through the Zion Gate coming from Hebron Road and David Remez streets only.

Illegally parked vehicles will be towed.

Hundreds of Israeli Arabs protested outside Sha’ar Shchem (Damascus Gate) in Jerusalem on Friday. Four people were arrested as the crowd tried to march towards the US Consulate. Hundreds more Arabs protested in Yafo against the ‘Innocence’ film.

The US has forbidden any government personnel to enter the Old City of Jerusalem today.