President Obama’s decision to nominate Senator John Kerry as his next Secretary of State will prove to be a disaster for Israel.
The
choice of the American Jewish establishment to vehemently protest the
expected nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel while granting Kerry a
free pass for his anti-Israel behavior follows their longtime pattern.
Hagel
is a Republican who has a history of marking foolish remarks regarding
Israel and has long been seen as an independent thinker on Middle East
policy with a non-interventionist outlook.
Kerry, however, is the much bigger problem for Israel.
Hagel
as Sec of Defense will be tasked with handling military issues. Kerry
will be in a position to effect policy as it impacts Israel, set an
overall tone for US in the Middle East and be a key player in future
negotations.
When it comes to criticizing Democrats who are
hostile to Israel, the Jewish elites have a history of weakness. From
Jesse Jackson to Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, Democrats are treated
with kid gloves and given the benefit of the doubt, while pro-Israel Republicans are never given their due praise.
When
Kerry ran for president, he was vetted by the so-called pro-Israel
community in the U.S. and little was made of his attitudes toward Israel
because he had, for the most part, steered clear of controversy.
Kerry’s
record since his presidential campaign tells a different tale. It was
clear Kerry would not run for president again and his policy shift on
Israel was ignored. What’s worse is that Kerry’s attitudes on Israel are
still being ignored by the pro-Israel community.
Even
Kerry’s failure to sign the December 20, 2012 letter in support of
continuing sanctions against Iran has not been a matter of concern for
pro-Israel activists. [See http://www.adl.org/PresRele/
And this even though 73 of Kerry’s fellow senators signed the letter. [See http://www.jta.org/news/
Kerry’s Israel problem goes back much farther than his troubling attitude towards Iranian sanctions.
When
Kerry decided to take over for former President Jimmy Carter as the
front man for Democratic criticism of Israel, he enlisted the U.S.'s
first Muslim member of Congress for help.
Kerry was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he stated on March 04, 2009 at a Brookings Institute address:
"Nothing
will do more to make clear our seriousness about turning the page than
demonstrating – with actions rather than words – that we are serious
about Israel freezing settlement activity in the West Bank. For
decades, American presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, have
opposed new settlement activity and recognized that the settlements are
an obstacle to peace.. " [See http://www.brookings.edu/
It
should be apparent that when it comes to pressuring Israel on Israeli
settlements John Kerry plans to pick up at Foggy Bottom where James
Baker left off.
Kerry’s idea that the settlements are the
main problem echoes the rhetoric of Yasser Arafat’s successors, Mahmoud
Abbas and Salam Fayyad. In his March 2009 remarks, Kerry even adopted
the Arab view that Jerusalem is one of “the big three issues.”
Jerusalem is no issue – it is Israel’s capital.
The
view that Israel and the Palestinian Arabs equally share blame for the
continuation of a decades old conflict is just another part of Kerry’s
troubling perspective.
While Kerry was on his February 2009
junket to the Middle East, it was no mere coincidence that Rep. Keith
Ellison was in Gaza at the same time. This was a coordinated effort by
senior Democrats to demonstrate to Israel’s government that the
pro-Israel attitude of the Bush-Cheney years were over.
The Forward
reported on April 10, 2009 that “...he (Ellison) presented the findings
of his February 19 trip to Gaza at a Capitol Hill event sponsored by
the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.
The
second-term congressman did not mince words when describing the hardship
that Gaza residents are facing in the aftermath of the Israeli attack,
or in addressing Israel directly on what actions ought to be taken to
ease the suffering. “I come here with one message only,” he told the
audience: “Open up the crossings, open up the crossings, open up the
crossings.”
Later in his speech, Ellison once again chose
the triple-repetition technique when calling on Israel to “stop, stop,
stop the settlement expansion.”
[http://www.forward.com/
Kerry provided Ellison with the cover he needed for his verbal onslaught against Israeli settlements.
At
the Democratic Convention in 2012 Kerry ignored the decision of his
party leadership to remove Jerusalem from their platform and instead
opened his podium speech by attacking Romney for his “neo-con advisors”
and then proceeded to quote Benjamin Netanyahu out of context. [See http://www.politifact.com/
We all know what Kerry meant when he said “neo-cons” – it is code speak for pro-Zionists. Kerry’s words show
that he will be hostile to the very existence of Israeli towns in the
suburbs of Jerusalem. Democrats consider these “settlements” to be part
of the “Occupied West Bank”and he will label them as such.
John
Kerry’s leadership at State will be the beginning of a new effort by
the Obama Administration to pressure Israel to surrender territory to
the Palestinian Authority, deny Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem,
negotiate with Hamas and accept a hostile Palestinian State along its
vulnerable borders.
Israel and its American supporters are in for a very tough time with Kerry and they seem to have no idea what is in store.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12659#.UN-Meaw_zkY
Saturday 29 December 2012
John Kerry at State: A Disaster for Israel
Posted @ 17:58
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