OPINION ARTICLES

Kerry reaffirmed the betrayal

The Ultimate Offense of Obama and Kerry against Israel

The hypocrisy and the double-standard when Israel is on the table, have been sadly adopted by the U.S. under the Obama?s mandates.

2017-01-02 by Friends of Israel Initiative


Last December 28, the US Secretary of State John Kerry showed again his fixation with Israel and his misconceptions on the conflict with the Palestinians. Kerry tried to explain the position of the Obama’s administration in the unjust UN Security Council Resolution 2334, but he could not hide that the US abstention in the vote has been the ultimate blow to Israel after eight years of snubs and disagreements. The Resolution has been a dangerous and offensive move, a betrayal to Israel, the most valuable ally of the US in the Middle East.

Since 2012, the Obama and Kerry policy about Israel have been focused on eroding the position of the Jewish State in the Middle East, and in America. Two obsessions have led this strategy: the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the belief that Iranian current regime can be reliable.

These obsessions have resulted tremendously failed. One year after the nuclear deal the consequences have gone beyond our concerns, and the peace between Israelis and Palestinians has been pushed out of reach —because the conflict is obviously much more complex than the settlements.

In this regard, Kerry stated that the aim of allowing this Resolution to pass has been to preserve the two-State solution as the mainstream formula to end the conflict. Yet on the contrary, as we have strongly claimed, this Resolution is a nonsense initiative against the peace, an immoral text that presented the construction of housing in the West Bank and terrorist acts as morally equivalent —just as Barack Obama did in his last speech before the UN General Assembly last September. Besides, the Resolution 2334 will boost the international delegitimization against the State of Israel worldwide.

In line with the Obama’s administration attitude about Israel, Kerry placed the bulk of the blame on Israel and rewarded the obstructionist and violent approach of the Palestinians—as they have been doing for eight years.  

Kerry minimized the impact of the Palestinian terrorism on Israeli civilians, not only the last wave of attacks known as the knife-Intifada, but also the long decades of suicide bombings, launch of rockets and missiles, etc. He also forgot to mention the lack of will in the Palestinian side to coexist with Israel —which is the main obstacle for peace— and how the Palestinian leaders have rejected, again and again, to reach a peace agreement with Israel. Camp David II, Annapolis, Geneva are painful examples of the Palestinian intransigence to accept Israel as a reality, and Kerry ignored them.

In this sense, Kerry revolved largely about the settlements, and how they put the peace far away and avoid the viability of a future Palestinian State. Nevertheless, Kerry knows perfectly that the impossibility of creating a Palestinian State occurs for other reasons. The unwilling position of the Palestinian Authority to sit in the negotiation table with Israel and its corrupt governance in one hand, and the hard and unescapable truth that the Gaza Strip is ruled by a Jihadi terrorist entity which top goal is to destroy Israel on the other hand. Settlements are not the problem, Palestinian refusal to make peace is.

Also, in any case Israel is not practicing an occupation. The West Bank is disputed territory with yet unresolved territorial rights. There are hundreds of territorial disputes in the world, and none of them have the same monitorization from the international community and the US.  Moreover, there are truly occupations such as Tibet and the north of Cyprus, and we are still missing an international campaign of delegitimization against China and Turkey. The hypocrisy and the double-standard when Israel is on the table, have been sadly adopted by the U.S. under the Obama’s mandates.

Despite its difficult position and the hostility of its enemies, Israel has always reached out a hand for peace. Israel withdrew from the north of Lebanon in 2000 and disconnected from the Gaza Strip in 2005, and what Israel has received in return has been more violence. Not to mention the transfer of sovereignty to Palestinians under the Oslo Accords. Israel cannot sign a peace without guarantees, and considering the current situation, Palestinians are currently not able to set the conditions in order to maintain a lasting and viable peace with Israel. The State of Israel cannot risk its existence in a bad bet.

Kerry also tried to emulate Clinton parameters and offered five principles for an eventual peace agreement. As to one of the most aberrant points of the Resolution 2334, defining East Jerusalem as occupied territory, the Kerry’s Principle Four set Jerusalem as capital for the two states. We still do not know the formula for this proposal, but the idea is a dangerous utopia. Furthermore, besides the unbreakable and millennia bond between the Jewish People and Jerusalem, Israeli claims on the city are legitimate by all legal means. Even so, in 2000, Ehud Barak offered to divide Jerusalem, including the old city, and the Palestinian leadership, under Arafat's designs, once again said no to peace.

At the end of the day, Kerry reaffirmed the position of the Obama’s administration, unprecedented in the bilateral relation —despite Kerry’s claims in this regard—and lost the opportunity to repair a harmful policy against the only one democracy in the Middle East, which is also the most valuable and reliable ally of the U.S. in the region. Kerry can defend and justify this infamous Resolution, but in sum the US joined last December 23 to the international assault on Israel’s legitimacy, which has its headquarter in the U.N.

We deeply hope that the Trump’s Administration make a complete amendment of the Obama’s policy towards Israel. The U.S. frankly must adopt a more positive and comprehensive approach with Israel’s needs and, above all, a pragmatic policy about the reality on the ground. Precisely the contrary to the Obama’s Administration during these eight years.