U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter are meeting with their Australian counterparts in Boston to discuss security and trade issues.
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Since October 1, seven Israelis have been killed and dozens more have been injured in 26 separate attacks across Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“I will go there soon, at a few point appropriately, and try to work to reengage and see if we can’t move that away from this precipice”, Kerry told an audience at an event sponsored by Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and global Affairs.
The surging violence has both Israelis and Palestinians pointing fingers at each other over its causes.
“The situation is simply too volatile, too unsafe, and it is not going to lead to the outcome that people want, which is to have a peaceful resolution of the differences”, Kerry said at a press conference held in Boston after the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations. “And there’s been a massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years, and now you have this violence because there’s a frustration that is growing”.
The attacks were only the latest in a two-week-old upsurge in violence that has raised fears of third full-scale Palestinian uprising, or “intifada”.
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Kerry said he spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend to stress his concerns.
