John Kerry's Pathetic Speech

This article first appeared in New English Review.


Pathetic


It's hard to find much logic behind lame-duck secretary of state John Kerry's speech Wednesday other than pouring more fuel on the fire between the out-going Obama administration and Israel after the US abstained in the UN Security Council resolution against Israel. Kerry spent the bulk of his time condemning Israeli settlements as being a threat to the two-state solution.

What has always been a threat to the two-state solution, an obstacle really, has  been the refusal of the Palestinians to accept the existence of Israel. How can you have two states living side by side when one state (Palestine) believes that the entire area ("from the river to the sea") belongs to them including Jerusalem and all its holy sites? How can you have a two state solution when Palestinians are taught since they are children that Jews are the "sons of apes and pigs" and not worthy of life? How can you have a two-state solution when Palestinian children are taught that their highest goal in life is to kill Israeli Jews? How can you have a two-state solution when Palestine would be free to control its own borders, join with terrorist entities like Iran, and use their state as a launching pad for attacks against Israel? And that's just the West Bank. We have not even gotten to Gaza yet, which is controlled by Hamas. Even the so-called "moderate" government of Mahmoud Abbas declares that an independent Palestine would not contain one Jew.

As for the Israeli claim that they have indisputable evidence that the Obama administration was involved in the development of the resolution, I agree that eventually, they will need to lay it on the table- while protecting their confidential sources. That is perhaps why they say they will share it with the new administration under Donald Trump. One thing they have learned the hard way is that this administration cannot be trusted to protect sensitive sources. (Right, Hillary?)

Even if the Israeli claims are unfounded, the act of abstaining in this disgraceful vote and permitting it to pass is beyond shameful. We have thrown our ally, Israel, a state trying merely to survive, under the bus in favor of a corrupt body (the UN) and a people who danced in the streets on 9-11. We owe the Palestinians nothing, and we still have yet to learn that an eventual peace must be between the two parties. It cannot be imposed from outside.

John Kerry, like his predecessor (Hillary Clinton) and like his boss (Obama), is a failed secretary of state who has appeased our adversaries and enemies while giving the shaft to our own interests and those of our friends. Given this abstention, Kerry's speech, and the infamous Iran deal, their claims that no administration has done more in defense of Israel is a sick joke.