The United States is not giving up. John Kerry returns to the region today (Wednesday) eager to continue with negotiations. He is not alone. He has the full backing of President Barack Obama. Diplomatic sources say the Americans were not surprised by Palestinian opposition to the security plan devised in Washington. They found two advantages in Mahmoud Abbas’ intransigence. First, it allows the administration to align itself with Israel following the fresh wound of the nascent Iran deal in Geneva. Second, when Mahmoud Abbas accepts the main points of the U.S. security vision, it will be hard for Israel to reject them.

Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon claim that they refuse to exchange the broad territories held by the Israel Defense Forces in the Jordan Valley for high-level detection technologies. But when it emerges that Israel will be allowed to hold on to these territories for 15 years, it will be hard for Israel to continue to oppose the plan, even though in Washington they know that Amman is no less fearful than Israel of a possible Palestinian deployment along the river.

Both sides are trying to present achievements to their domestic audiences. Now that Kerry is threatening to postpone the third wave of prisoner releases, he is creating a convenient pretext for Abbas to claim, when the release finally takes place, that he scored an achievement and reversed the evil decree.

Read the article in full at Israel Hayom