Secretary of State John Kerry has long been considered an integral part of President Obama’s foreign policy team. And for just as long, he has been an anti-Israel advocate par excellence, an opponent of the Jewish State’s right to defend itself, a man dedicated to pressuring our only ally in the Middle East to concede to terror.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, to see the terms of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel proposed by Kerry in his latest round of anti-Israel maneuverings. His ceasefire proposal was so unacceptable that it was unanimously rejected by the Israeli cabinet, including leftists Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid; even Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan see the proposal as disastrous. The Palestinian Authority doesn’t even like the proposal, given their jockeying for power in the Gaza Strip.
According to Ha’aretz, Israel’s leftmost newspaper, the terms of the ceasefire included:
arrangements to secure the opening of crossings, allow the entry of goods and people and ensure the social and economic livelihood of the Palestinian people living in Gaza, transfer of funds to Gaza for the payment of salaries for public employees and address all security issues. Israel’s demands were mentioned in the most general of terms in the phrase ‘address all security issues.’ There was no one mention of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip of its rocket supply or advanced weapons, and not the dismantling of the terror tunnels.
Barak Ravid, a hard-left Ha’aretz writer, went so far as to write:
The draft Kerry passed to Israel on Friday shocked the cabinet ministers not only because it was the opposite of what Kerry told them less than 24 hours earlier, but mostly because it might as well have been penned by Khaled Meshal. It was everything Hamas could have hoped for….The document placed Israel and Hamas on the same level, as if the first is not a primary U.S. ally and as if the second isn’t a terror group which overtook part of the Palestinian Authority in a military coup and fired thousands of rockets at Israel.
Ravid, of course, said that Kerry was not anti-Israel – which begs the question as to who Ravid would consider anti-Israel. He concluded, “It’s as if he isn’t the foreign minister of the world’s most powerful nation, but an alien, who just disembarked his spaceship in the Mideast.”
But he isn’t an alien. He didn’t just disembark his spaceship in the Middle East. Kerry has a long history of such nastiness. Here are Kerry’s top seven other anti-Israel moments:
The Hot Mic Moment. Just last week, as Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israel and Israel responded by attempting to hit military targets and avoid civilian casualties – Israel sacrificed its own troops in order to distinguish civilian from military targets – Kerry was caught on an open mic on Fox News ripping Israel for civilian casualties. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation, it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry whined. “We’ve got to get over there.” According to Fox News’ Chris Wallace, other media quashed coverage of this anti-Israel broadside.
Kerry Threatens Boycotts. Following the lead of his president, Kerry stated, “The risks are very high for Israel [if an agreement is not reached]. People are talking about boycott. That will intensify in the case of failure. Do they want a failure that then begs whatever may come in the form of a response from disappointed Palestinians and the Arab community?” According to IDF Radio, Kerry himself organized European boycotts of Israeli goods should an agreement not be reached.
Kerry Threatens Intifada. In November, Kerry threatened that Israel’s failure to reach an agreement could lead to violence. “Failure of the talks will increase Israel’s isolation in the world. The alternative to getting back to the talks is a potential of chaos. I mean, does Israel want a third intifada?” Kerry warned. “I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis; if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel. There will be an increasing campaign of delegitimization of Israel that’s taking place on an international basis. That if we do not resolve the question of the settlements and who lives where and how and what rights they have; if we don’t end the presence of Israeli soldiers perpetually within the West Bank, then there will be an increasing feeling that if we cannot get peace with a leadership that is committed to nonviolence, you may wind up with leadership that is committed to violence.”
Kerry Calls Israel an “Apartheid State.” In April, Kerry said that Israel had to make concessions to the Palestinians or face becoming an “apartheid state.” He also warned again that Israel could precipitate violence by not surrendering to Palestinian terror. “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,” Kerry said.
Kerry Pushes 1949 Lines. Mirroring the policies of President Obama, Kerry has reportedly pushed Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders referred to in Israel as “Auschwitz borders” due to their indefensibility.
State Department Rejects Requiring Palestinians to Accept Jewish State. Kerry’s State Department rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mandate that any peace deal be predicated on acceptance of Israel as a Jewish State. In March, Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, reportedly told Palestinian Authority Al-Quds newspaper, “The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement.”
Kerry Backs Iran Deal. When Israel objected to the Obama administration’s absurd nuclear deal with Iran, Kerry’s spokesperson instead said that Israeli worries about the deal were “inaccurate, exaggerated, and not based on reality.” According to NPR, “the secretary himself reportedly told senators behind closed doors that they should disregard the Israeli reports about the deal. Kerry’s also been more vocal lately about Israeli settlement building in the West Bank as his other priority, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, falter.”
No wonder back in January, Israel’s Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, said that Kerry “turned up here determined and acting out of misplaced obsession and messianic fervor,” stating the only hope for Israel was for Kerry to “win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.” That drew the ire of the State Department, which demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu apologize to Kerry.
Kerry is the one who owes Israelis an apology – just as he owes his fellow soldiers an apology, just as he owes Syrians an apology, just as he owes innocent Iraqis an apology, just as he owes Ukrainians an apology. Kerry’s tenure has been marked by his reprehensible cowardice and desire to appease the world’s worst regimes. His current support for Hamas is no exception.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the new book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.