Israel Matzav

Kerry: Obama wasted first half of term on Mideast 'peace,' may try it again

As I noted in my previous post, the Obama administration continues in a thus-far-fruitless exercise to implement Arab Islamic replacement theology in the Levant. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass) spoke to the same gathering to which Hillary Clinton spoke on Tuesday night, and had some candid admissions.

Speaking to a gathering in Washington of leaders from the Muslim world, Kerry said the administration's effort to set the table for broader talks by resolving the impasse over Jewish settlements in the West Bank was futile. However, he suggested that Obama may move soon to get the peace process going in order to head off a possible showdown at the United Nations in September.

"I was opposed to the prolonged effort on the settlements in a public way because I never thought it would work and, in fact, we have wasted a year and a half on something that for a number of reasons was not achievable," Kerry told the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, organized by the Brookings Institution's Saban Center. "I think it sort of put the cart ahead of the horse in a way here. The key is to get to the security and borders definition and if you can get the borders definition you’ve solved the problem of the settlements. But we can’t get that discussion right now."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington next month. Kerry said Netanyahu is likely to address the U.S. Congress and will have an opportunity to present a peace plan that could help defuse a confrontation at the United Nations in September over a proposed vote on the international organization formally recognizing Gaza and the West Bank as a Palestinian state.

"I suspect that it’s very possible that President Obama will even step out ahead of that and will possibly-- I say possibly--make his own contribution to where he thinks the process ought to go in the meantime. Conceivably, that can come together in a responsible effort that produces a transition here," Kerry said. "I think we can get to borders and the fundamental issues fairly quickly and its conceivable that between now and September we will do that."

The first half of that equation - that Obama wasted the first half of his term - seems like a consensus. It's the second half that's intriguing. Is Obama going to do it again? He might, but an awful lot of people don't believe anything will come of it if he does.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria, who was moderating the panel discussion, responded with skepticism bordering on disbelief. "You’re predicting a burst of diplomatic activity and achievement in six months that has not happened in two years?” he asked.

“I’m going way out on a limb and predicting the possibility of it,” said Kerry, while hinting that his speculation was informed by some concrete knowledge about a renewed U.S. effort.. “But I think I’m giving you some relatively good vision of what might unfold here."

A White House spokesman declined to comment on Kerry's criticism or his tentative prediction of a new U.S. initiative. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is schedule to address the same conference Tuesday evening.

Former Carter Secretary of State Zbigniew Brezinski was there too and suggested that what we really need is for Obama to make Israel feel insecure. Right....

I'm going to try to embed the panel discussion below. The Kerry and Brzezinski comments start around 1:04:45

Let's go to the videotape.



What could go wrong?

UPDATE 11:24 AM

The Brzezinski comments start around 59:20 1:18:45.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Fareed Zakaria, John Kerry, Zbigniew Brzezinski

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:33 AM