Israel Matzav

Some troubling milestones in John F.N. Kerry's record on Israel, Iran and terrorism

December 2012: Kerry was one of only 26 senators not to sign a letter urging President Obama to reiterate his readiness to use military force against Iran if all other measures fail to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capacity.

September 2012: Kerry was one of only 25 senators who refused to sign a letter urging the European Union to designate Hizballah as a terrorist organization.

June 2012: Kerry was one of only 13 senators who refused to sign a letter supporting Israel’s right to self-defense and affirming the legality of Israel’s naval blockage of Hamas-controlled Gaza, following the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident.

2011: Kerry, in the words of a recent editorial in the Washington Post, “pushed the more cautious Mr. Obama toward ... the endorsement of Hosni Mubarak’s departure from the Egyptian presidency,” a ruinous policy which has resulted in the Islamist, extremist Muslim Brotherhood taking control of Egypt, formerly America’s most important ally in the Arab world and against which the ZOA warned against at the time. The same editorial notes that “Mr. Kerry shares one of Mr. Obama’s greatest weaknesses: an excessive faith in the potential benefits of ‘engagement’ with rogue regimes and dictators. In particular, Mr. Kerry’s repeated attempts to foster a dialogue with Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad offers a case study of how such diplomacy can go wrong.”

April 2010: Kerry again met with Syrian dictator Assad and called Syria “an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region.” A few months later, the Assad regime embarked on its campaign, still in progress, of killing thousands of unarmed civilians in its bid to remain in power.

April 2010: Kerry was one of only 13 senators who refused to sign a letter stressing the need for “direct, face-to-face negotiations without preconditions on either side” for Israelis and Palestinians and affirming the “unbreakable bonds that tie the United States and Israel together.”

April 2010: Kerry was one of only 19 senators who refused to sign a letter calling for imposing crippling sanctions upon Iran.

Labels: John Kerry

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:07 PM