The Israeli newspaper Haaretz called it “Kerry’s A-bomb.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chose the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, of all days, to invoke the inflammatory term “apartheid state” in reference to Israel. Kerry was addressing a convocation of the Trilateral Commission and a recording of the speech was leaked to the online news site, The Daily Beast.
While expressing sadness at the recent collapse of peace talks, Kerry cast blame for the outcome on both Israeli and Palestinian leadership. But the Secretary of State made it clear that he believed the consequences for Israel would be far more serious.
That collapse of the so-called peace process resulted from last week’s announcement that the ruling Palestinian Fatah Party was reconciling with its bitter rival, the Hamas organization, and planning to form a unified government with the terrorist organization.
Kerry repeated past warnings that if peace wasn’t reached, Israel would be faced with a new round of violence from the Palestinians as well as increased boycott efforts. He went further and said that the alternative to an Israeli acceptance of a two-state solution was that it would become “an apartheid state.”
This language rightly triggered a firestorm of criticism—in Israel and throughout the United States.
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon told The Times of Israel that not only was Kerry’s “apartheid” label false, it could be more accurately applied to Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Danon said, “Today there is not a single Jew in Gaza, not a single Jewish soldier, and we still can see very well that hatred for Israel rules there.”
Kerry’s comments will merely serve to add false legitimacy and an air of moral authority to the next intifada as well as the continued efforts of the BDS—boycott, divest, sanction—movement against Israel.
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