Israel Matzav

Kerry to US 'Jewish leaders': 'I know what's good for Israel better than its elected leaders'

US Secretary of State John Kerry has told a group of American 'Jewish leaders' that he knows what's good for Israel better than that country's elected leadership.

An optimistic-sounding Kerry asked the Jewish leaders for their help in supporting the newly restarted talks, The Times of Israel learned, saying that he feared for Israel’s future if a peace deal is not reached.

Kerry told the fewer than two-dozen representatives of Jewish organizations that he really believes that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas realize that there is a strategic imperative to act now. He noted that Israel faces the threat of diplomatic isolation and a demographic clock.

A number of the Jewish leaders pressed Kerry on Abbas’s upcoming address to the United Nations General Assembly. They expressed hope that Abbas would change the tone of his rhetoric during his speeches to the world body — a good-faith gesture to demonstrate outward Palestinian willingness to engage in peace talks. One observer noted that Kerry seemed receptive to the idea.

Other Jewish representatives pushed for Kerry to ask Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Kerry told the leaders that one of the lynchpins of the current peace process is the separation of Israel’s security assurances from the general negotiations, assurances he said would be guaranteed in a separate agreement with the US.

Of course, Kerry isn't the only one who thinks he knows what's good for Israel better than the country's leadership. So does the American 'Jewish leadership.'

The Jewish leadership was a virtual who’s who of the American Jewish community, representing a broad political spectrum, including representatives from the Orthodox Union as well as J Street, and including leaders such as the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman and the Conference of Presidents’ Malcolm Hoenlein.

Actually, the only group I see there that's not on the left is the Orthodox Union. The groups identified with the Right - the World Zionist Organization and the National Council of Young Israel (for example) were apparently not invited.

This meeting was a soft sell for most attendees, without Kerry pressing them to take the message of support for peace talks home to their respective communities. The hard sell — a more organized push to market the peace talks to centrist US Jews — is anticipated to come later in August, in the run-up to Rosh Hashanah.

Just what we needed....

Labels: Abu Mazen, American Jewish leadership, Binyamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, Middle East peace process

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:43 PM