U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry board a plane to Turkey in Maryland, April 6, 2013. Photo: Reuters

US Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to return to the Middle East later this week in an effort to draw Israel and the Palestinians back into direct negotiations. After Kerry’s visit to the Middle East in late June, his senior adviser on the peace process Frank Lowenstein made diplomatic visits to Jerusalem and Ramallah to meet with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Lowenstein is persuading the parties to agree to a document that would contain the principles for a resumption of talks, but no explicit agreement has yet emerged.