Shame on Kerry: US comes down on side of Hamas

by Vic Rosenthal

John Kerry gets together with Foreign Ministers of Qatar and Turkey to produce Hamas-friendly cease fire proposal

This is absolutely incredible (or, sadly, maybe not). Let me quote Ha’aretz diplomatic writer Barak Ravid, anything but a right-winger:

The draft [cease fire agreement] Kerry passed to Israel on Friday shocked the cabinet ministers not only because it was the opposite of what Kerry told them less than 24 hours earlier, but mostly because it might as well have been penned by Khaled Meshal. It was everything Hamas could have hoped for.

The document recognized Hamas’ position in the Gaza Strip, promised the organization billions in donation funds and demanded no dismantling of rockets, tunnels or other heavy weaponry at Hamas’ disposal. The document placed Israel and Hamas on the same level, as if the first is not a primary U.S. ally and as if the second isn’t a terror group which overtook part of the Palestinian Authority in a military coup and fired thousands of rockets at Israel. …

The secretary of state’s draft empowered the most radical and problematic elements in the region – Qatar, Turkey, and Hamas – and was a slap on the face to the rapidly forming camp of Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, who have many shared interests. What Kerry’s draft spells for the internal Palestinian political arena is even direr: It crowns Hamas and issues Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with a death warrant.

This is so upside-down that it defies parody. The biggest war criminals on the planet launch an unprovoked attack against Israel’s civilian population, fire hundreds of rockets from behind the skirts of their own civilians and prepare a mass-casualty terrorist attackthat would rival anything al-Qaeda has been able to pull off. They are stopped only by Israel’s virtually miraculous technology and actually miraculous good luck.

So Israel sends its people’s army into battle, rips thousands of reservists away from their families and their jobs, and starts grinding the enemy down at great cost. Some of its young men — and some not-so-young ones — will never go home from this war. Tens of thousands of Israelis attend the funerals of two Jewish youths that came to Israel from the safe haven of the US to fight for their people.

Then along comes the Secretary of State of the United States of America, a representative of the President who brags about the “unbreakable bond” between his country and Israel. But instead of offering the Hamas leadership a trip to The Hague where they would be tried and imprisoned or executed for their crimes against humanity, he conspires with Hamas’ greatest supporters to reward them.

Instead of telling them that either they can surrender or his country will stay out of the way while Israel crushes them like the venomous insects that they are, he tries to throw Hamas a lifeline.

Instead of supporting the historic (if temporary) alignment of Israel, Egypt, the PA, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Islamic radicalism, he cleaves to the side of Hamas and the forces of jihad.

ISIS recently announced that Christians in Mosul had the options to convert to Islam, flee or die. Most fled and were relieved of their possessions on the way out. Hamas is slightly less radical in action, but the ideology is the same. Is this what Kerry and Obama think the US stands for?

The Israeli cabinet told Kerry unanimously that the proposal was a non-starter. We already saw the stick that is being used along with the carrot of military aid, when the FAA banned flights to Ben-Gurion Airport in order to pressure Israel. Apparently domestic politics forced the administration to back down, but certainly it has other sticks in reserve. Israel would do well to learn to live without US military aid.

Meanwhile, shame on John Kerry and Barack Obama. Can this be the policy the American people want? I don’t think so.

http://abuyehuda.com/2014/07/shame-on-kerry-us-comes-down-on-side-of-hamas/