Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Israel and Palestine will launch formal peace negotiations in the next two weeks with the goal of establishing a “final status” plan for an independent Palestinian state within nine months. Kerry made the announcement after representatives from the two governments met Monday and Tuesday in Washington for the first time in five years. “It’s no secret that this is a difficult process. If it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago,” Kerry said, describing the meeting as a “new moment of possibility.” Some of the issues that remain to be addressed are as thorny as ever, particularly whether or how to divide Jerusalem to create a Palestinian capital.
