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Updated with YouTube video report and coverage by Mondoweiss.

The traitor to US interests once again shows his contempt for Democracy and the separation of powers for the executive to set US foreign policy. Netanyahu shouldn’t feel comfortable with McCain’s visit, as he personally invited disaster to the causes he supports. See recent visits to Kiev in the Ukraine, northern Syria and Cairo in Egypt. Even Georgia wasn’t a success before the war against Putin’s Russia.

McCain, in Israel, voices skepticism about Kerry’s Middle East peace push

JERUSALEM, Israel (WaPo) – Leading Republican senators said Friday that they share Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reservations about terms for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement proposed by Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

Netanyahu “has serious, serious concerns about the plan as it has been presented to him,” particularly about the future security of Israel and the viability of a future independent Palestinian state, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) said after meetings with Netanyahu and other officials in Israel.

 « click for McCain in Israel National News
(photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

McCain and fellow Senate Republicans Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and John Barrasso (Wyo.) said they share the general alarm about Israel’s security should the country withdraw from the West Bank. Without providing details of the largely secret proposals, McCain and Graham suggested that they and other supporters of Israel in Congress will greet Kerry’s program skeptically.

McCain and Graham met with Kerry on Friday in Jerusalem, where the secretary of state is working to win Israeli and Palestinian backing for a rough outline of a peace deal. Kerry met with Netanyahu on Friday for the second time in two days, and he met later with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

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Late Thursday, Israeli security forces announced the arrest of four operatives and 10 accomplices they said belong to an alleged terrorist cell based in Bethlehem. The Israelis said that during interrogations the suspects had confessed to a remote-controlled bombing on an Israeli bus in a Tel Aviv suburb Dec. 22.

Gag order lifted: Police arrest suspects in Bat Yam bus blast

Continued below the fold …

John Kerry Cites Progress to ‘Framework’ Peace Deal

(Reuters/The Forward) – Israel and the Palestinians are making progress towards reaching a framework peace agreement but they are not there yet, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Saturday.

Kerry spoke after about three hours of talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, the Palestinian seat of government in the West Bank.

“I am confident that the talks we have had in the last two days have already fleshed out and even resolved certain kinds of issues and presented new opportunities for others,” he said.

Kerry said he would fly to Jordan and to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet with the kings of each Arab nation to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed on July 29 with a target of reaching a final agreement within nine months.

Arab support is regarded as essential for the Palestinians to be able to make the compromises likely to be necessary to strike a peace deal with Israel.

 « click for JPost article on progress
Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Sen. John McCain in Jerusalem. Protests greeted his planned visit to the West Bank, where Palestinians are angry at the 'slow pace of peace talks.' (Getty Images)

Kerry: Israel, Palestinians make progress towards framework deal

[Update]

‘Netanyahu mouthpieces’ McCain and Graham crash Kerry’s Jerusalem party

(Mondoweiss) – Pro-Israel Republican Senators John McCain (AZ), Lindsay Graham (SC) and John Barrasso (WY) showed up in Jerusalem on Friday, apparently to remind the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that they do not feel he is sufficiently supportive of the Israeli Prime Minister and his negotiating positions.

How often does a U.S. Senate delegation visit a foreign country, during a visit of a high ranking State Department official in order to make their opposition to the official U.S. position known? Has it ever happened before? And does the fact that we are talking about Israel make it OK?

Andrea Mitchell at MSNBC interviewed R. Nicholas Burns and Jane Harman about the surprise visit. Burns, who served in the State Department under President George W. Bush, would not criticize the Republican senators and called the visit “politics as usual.” However, despite her avid pro-Israel and pro-lobby positions, Harman, a Democrat, who was formerly the powerful Chairwomen of the House Intelligence Committee, took a shot at the Senate delegation:

    “I understand that Lindsey Graham is in a tough primary but gee whiz guys, I think being the mouthpiece of the Prime Minister of Israel while our Secretary of State is there is not very smart.

    And Bibi Netanyahu has direct channels to John Kerry any time he wants to use them either public or private, and I think frankly what they did, however well intended it might have been or however focused on their politics it might have been, should not have happened.”

Harman’s party loyalty apparently won out over her pro-Israel inclinations in the interview. However, I imagine she will be soon receiving a telephone call from someone at AIPAC, who will at least mildly reprimand her for stating the obvious, that crashing Secretary Kerry’s party was a horrible misstep.

Israeli missile launch site named after US Senator Daniel Inouye

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