Who's Afraid of Kerry?

by Yitz of Jerusalem

Well, the unexpected revelation that Kerry threatened that Israel could become an “apartheid state,” if it didn’t continue the “peace process,” certainly had the Secretary of State and his office jumping yesterday.

Firstly we have Kerry's Spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, who had trouble explaining his 'apartheid' comments, and stumbled when asked about Kerry’s remarks that Israel risks becoming an "apartheid state".

Kerry himself apologized, well…sort of. He said, “Israel is a vibrant democracy and 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.”
But if you compare that with what he said Friday: "A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because 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," one wonders what kind of apology it was.

Two brave and brilliant women have eloquently reacted to Kerry’s remarks: Anne Bayefsky, who wrote, inter alia, “So when Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on April 25, 2014 just prior to Yom Hashoah, that Israel is on the verge of becoming an "apartheid state," it was more than a libel. It was dangerous… Kerry’s remarks, therefore, have to be put in a larger context. On April 7, 2014, the Obama administration decided for the first time to participate in the implementation of the Durban Declaration (that supposedly “Zionism is racism”).
And Paula Stern, who points out the distinctions between the Israeli and Arab treatments of their citizens: “What was missing, other than any iota of logic, in Kerry's words was the balance. Always, forever, the balance. What of the Arabs? What about this dream of a Palestinian state? Have you no concern about what type of a state, a Hamas-Fatah alliance would bring to the Middle East, John? None? Any?”

Both Senator Ted Cruz and Charles Krauthammer have called for him to resign (both these links are videos).

And as I mentioned earlier, James Taranto didn’t disappoint us. In fact, he dedicated almost all of his column last night to Kerry: “This begins to look like a protection racket. Kerry warned the Israelis that if they don't accede to his demands, other countries will take action to stigmatize Israel. Last week, in a closed-door meeting with leaders from other countries, he invoked a slur that Israel's enemies have employed for decades to stigmatize the Jewish State. If he was making a threat in February, he was attempting to carry it out last week.”

And finally, perhaps the best understanding of the so-called peace process I've ever read, by Daniel Greenfield: "Like so many other big lies, the big peace lie has become too big to fail. If politicians from around the world and across the political spectrum were to admit that they trusted a terrorist group to reform only to see the whole thing blow up in their faces, they would look like idiots."

(I strongly suggest that you read the articles linked above, not just my excerpts!)