Israel Matzav

Kerry rushes to Israel to 'save' the 'peace process'

US Secretary of State John FN Kerry rushed to Israel on Monday in a bid to 'save' the 'peace process.'

US Secretary of State John Kerry broke from his travel schedule for the second time in a week to rush back to Israel on Monday to try to salvage Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The US-brokered negotiations faced a crisis over the weekend when Israel, saying it was seeking a Palestinian commitment to continue negotiations beyond an end-of-April deadline, delayed the fourth prisoner release to which it had committed to in previous negotiations.

"After consulting with his team, Secretary Kerry decided it would be productive to return to the region," State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

Kerry had interrupted a visit to Rome last week to go to Amman for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to try to convince him to prolong the talks beyond an April 29 deadline for a deal and to press Israel to release the prisoners.

Since when is 'productive' a criterion for this administration? These 'talks' have been anything but productive - if anything their impending failure is likely to be downright destructive (God forbid) - and that was predictable from the outset. You can't force two parties to come to the table when neither of them wants to, and then expect them to reach an agreement.

Arutz Sheva adds:

Psaki reported that Kerry will be in Israel on Monday and Tuesday, and aside from meeting Netanyahu in Jerusalem will likely meet PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Kerry interrupted a trip to Rome to meet with Abbas just last Wednesday, amid the failing talks.

Oh well. There goes the first day of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting. Well, there's a fierce moral urgency to create a 'Palestinian' reichlet. There's no fierce moral urgency to save the Ukraine. 

"Over the course of the last eight months, the Israelis and Palestinians have both made tough choices, and as we work with them to determine the next steps, it is important they remember that only peace will bring the Israeli and Palestinian people both the security and economic prosperity they all deserve," Psaki added.

I think that if you asked most Israelis, they would tell you that we have relative security and economic prosperity right now (our streets are a lot safer than Kiev's), and that what Obama-Kerry are asking us to do is to endanger that relative security and economic prosperity for a pipe dream. If you go here, you will see that Israel is ranked as the 11th happiest country in the world, despite all of our issues with the 'Palestinians' and our other neighbors. The first Arab country to make the list is the oil-rich United Arab Emirates at number 14. The United States(!) is number 17. (Okay, Venezuela is number 20, which has to make you wonder how the survey was done, but still...). If most Israelis are happy, why would we want to change our status quo in a risky manner?

No, I don't expect Kerry to succeed. But then, I never expected him to succeed.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorists, Ramallah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:55 PM