Despite Defense Minister' Moshe Ya'alon's disparaging comments of US Secretary of State John Kerry and the diplomatic process he is leading, Israeli and US officials are continuing to meet on the document Kerry is expected to present in the coming weeks that is to form the basis for continued Israel-Palestinian negotiations.
Kerry, for his part, said he was "undeterred" by Ya'alon's comments, even though he indicated that the defense minister might be boxed out of future consultations.
"We just can't let one set of comments undermine that effort, and I don't intend to," Kerry said in Kuwait City where he was taking part in a Syria Donors' Conference.
"We're going to work with both sides," Kerry added. "I will work with the willing participants who are committed to peace, and committed to this process."
Ya'alon, in comments quoted in Yediot Ahronot on Tuesday, made clear that he was highly skeptical of the process. Up until now Ya'alon was a key participant in many of Kerry's meetings in Jerusalem.
Yediot Ahronot quoted Ya'alon as saying in private meetings that Kerry's diplomatic efforts stemmed from an "incomprehensible obsession" and "a messianic feeling." According to the report, Ya'alon said that Kerry should "take his Nobel Prize and leave us alone.”
The Secretary of State avoided mentioning Ya'alon by name in the press conference, and when asked if the defense minister's comments did not signal serious disagreement between Jerusalem and Washington, said that he and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "talk regularly, and we are both very committed to moving the process forward. And we just can't let one set of comments undermine that effort, and I don't intend to."
Kerry said that everywhere he travels he hears gratitude "for the efforts the United States is making for President Obama's commitment to try to make peace between Palestinians and Israelis. And we all know the very, very difficult choice in trying to deal with that. The process is hard. And we've always known that, as we approach the time for these difficult choices, it's going to be difficult. I mean there are hard choices to be made."
Ya'alon issued an apology to Kerry late Tuesday night saying he did not intend to cause offense to Kerry, and apologized if he did so. The apology came after a lengthy meeting Netanyahu held with Ya'alon earlier in the day over the matter.
Kerry has been on a diplomatic blitz in recent weeks to persuade Israel and the Palestinians, who resumed statehood talks in July after a three-year deadlock, to agree on an outline proposal addressing the core issues of their conflict.
There has been scant sign of progress, however.
One of the sticking points in peacemaking has been Israel's demand to keep a military presence under any future peace deal in the Jordan Valley, which forms the boundary between the West Bank and Jordan.
Kerry has presented the sides with ideas for security arrangements in the Jordan Valley. Neither the Israeli nor Palestinian side has publicly endorsed the proposals, and according to Yedioth, Ya’alon said: "The American security plan is not worth the paper it is written on."
The State Department challenged Ya’alon on the issue and said that questioning Kerry's motives was "not something we would expect from the defense minister of a close ally."
Ya’alon was initially silent about the Yedioth report, which apparently stemmed from an off-the-record briefing he gave Israeli reporters. But he acted to calm the furor with Washington after Prime Minister Netanyahu implicitly rebuked him in a speech.
An Israeli official said on Tuesday that Netanyahu had spoken by phone to a senior US official in a bid to smooth over the controversy.
Ya’alon is a member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, and has been a strong supporter of Jewish settlement-building on occupied land that Palestinians seek for a state.
As Israel's military chief, he was replaced in that post before its 2005 pullout of soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip, a move he opposed.