Sen. Ted Cruz has called on Secretary of State John Kerry to resign over his comment that without a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel risks becoming an “apartheid state.”
In response to remarks made by Secretary of State John Kerry last week that Israel could become an apartheid state, Texas Senator Ted Cruz called on Kerry to step down from his post.
“Secretary Kerry has long experience in foreign policy and he understands that words matter,” the Texas Republican said on the Senate floor. “Apartheid is inextricably associated with one of the worst examples of state-sponsored discrimination in history. … There is no place for this word in the context of the state of Israel.”
Cruz was one of just three senators to vote against Kerry’s confirmation to be secretary of State last January.
Watch Senator Cruz’s call for John Kerry’s resignation here.
Last week, the Daily Beast online new site reported that John Kerry apparently blamed Israel for the recent collapse of peace talks between the Jewish State and the Palestinian Authority, warning that the Jewish State may become “an apartheid state” if a two-state solution isn’t reached.
Kerry added that a “unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens — or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state. Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed to.”
Israeli Government Reacts to Apartheid State Comment
In response to Kerry’s remarks, several senior Israeli government officials have strongly criticized his most recent inflammatory statement about the Jewish state’s dire future should it fail to reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli PM Netanyahu meets with Secretary Of State Kerry in Jerusalem recently. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said on Monday that not only was Kerry’s prediction false, it could also be applied to Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank far more accurately than to Israel.
“There are many alternatives [to a two-state solution] and there is room to consider them in the future. Today there is not a single Jew in Gaza, not a single Jewish soldier, and we still can see very well that hatred for Israel rules there,” he said.
In response to the controversy unleashed by his ‘apartheid state’ comment, Kerry backtracked on Tuesday, saying in a strongly worded statement that “I do not believe, nor have I ever stated, publicly or privately, that Israel is an apartheid state or that it intends to become one.”
The Secretary of State attributed the diplomatic dust up to a poor use of words, adding, “If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two-state solution.”
Written by Gidon Ben-Zvi, Staff Writer, United with Israel