On Friday, United States Secretary of State John Kerry presented Israel with a cease-fire proposal that apparently capitulates to almost all Hamas demands yet fails to address Israel’s most basic security needs. Despite State Department assurances that it was based upon the Egyptian proposal from the week before, the draft is clearly a restatement of the Turkish and Qatari proposals that were offered on behalf of Hamas. Moreover, the proposal’s language grants Hamas political legitimacy, treating it as an entity on equal footing with Israel, rather than as a terrorist organization, as codified in American law. Kerry’s ludicrous offer not only shocked every member of Israel’s security cabinet, but also stabbed Egypt in the back, while upsetting the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. In fact, it is difficult to understand why Kerry would have presented a draft which the majority of traditional U.S. allies in the region would inevitably reject out of hand. Is this merely incompetence? Does it represent some fundamental shift in the Obama administration’s Mideast policy? Or is it a bone thrown to Iran, to show during the ongoing nuclear negotiations that the United States is open to a broader view of the Middle East that includes the viewpoints of Iran, Turkey, and Qatar, and that is no longer based upon the alliances that have held sway for the past thirty years?
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:52:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015