While praising the Palestinians for being “committed to nonviolence,” Kerry blamed Israel for a lack of peace in the region.
According to a newly revealed recording, former US Secretary of State John Kerry blames Israel for stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, saying that the majority of the Israeli cabinet opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israel’s Channel 10 on Tuesday published a recording, purportedly made at a conference in Dubai during this past year, in which Kerry can be heard praising the Palestinian Authority (PA) for its commitment to nonviolence. The statement was made amid the wave of Palestinian stabbing, shooting and car-ramming terror attacks that began in the fall of 2015.
“The Palestinians have done an extraordinary job of remaining committed to nonviolence. And in fact, when the [knife] intifada took place they delivered nonviolence in the West Bank,” Kerry said.
“This is overlooked by the general [Israeli] population because it is not a topic of discussion. Why? Because the majority of the cabinet currently in the current Israeli government has publicly declared they are not ever for a Palestinian state,” he charged.
Kerry has long accused Israel of being the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
Shortly before leaving office in December 2016, Kerry gave one of the most anti-Israel speeches by a supposed friend of Israel in recent memory, blasting Israel for its presence in Judea and Samaria, the ancient Jewish homeland, and calling it an “occupation of Palestinian lands.”
While mentioning Palestinian terror and incitement only in passing, he focused almost solely on Israel and its policies, which he alleged endangered peace and security in the region.
Kerry blasted Israel, while neglecting to address the hundreds of thousands who have died in the region as a result of the Obama administration’s policies and under his watch.
Many Democrats, as well as Israeli leaders and others around the world, denounced Kerry’s words.
Defending the Failed Nuclear Deal
The former secretary of state has been in the news in recent days over his defense of the Iran nuclear deal, which he helped negotiate in 2015. Kerry warned Congress that it would be “extraordinarily dangerous” if it rejected the agreement.
Kerry said in a presentation to the Chatham House think tank that President Donald Trump’s refusal to recertify the Iran deal in October “was clearly made without relevance to any fact whatsoever,” and that Congress should not be involved in the matter.
“[The nuclear deal has] been flipped over to the Congress with instructions, ‘you guys fix it.’ How the US Congress, which wasn’t part of the negotiations, which isn’t certified to be part of the negotiations, fixes an agreement which is working is beyond me,” Kerry said, AFP reported.
“What President Trump regrettably has done by his invective against the deal, he’s polluted the pool in a way that whatever Congress does is going to be interpreted as their effort to kill the deal through the back door,” Kerry said.
By: JNS.org and United with Israel Staff