Just hours before the arrival of Kerry, an Israeli minister said that Netanyahu was ready to push through a "painful evacuation of settlements as part of a final peace deal.”

Just hours before the arrival of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, an Israeli minister said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was ready to push through a "painful evacuation of settlements as part of a final peace deal.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry was due in al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Thursday evening for his fifth visit in as many months as he seeks to draw the Zionist entity and the Palestinian Authority (PA) back to the negotiating table.

Kerry, who arrived in Jordan on Wednesday, was to have a dinner meeting with Netanyahu and PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas a day later in Amman.

"Netanyahu knows there will be a painful evacuation of a number of settlements that are not in the settlement blocs, and that there will be a land swap," Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri told army radio. 

"There is no doubt that Benjamin Netanyahu and a not-insignificant number of Likud ministers understand, or have reached the conclusion that it is in Israel's strategic interest... to return to the negotiating table," said Peri, who now belongs to the centrist Yesh Atid party.

"Netanyahu is much more ready than in the past, whether it's for ideological or practical reasons, for an immediate return to the negotiating table," Peri added, saying there was a "new wind" blowing.