Patterico's Pontifications

12/28/2016

Witless Gigolo Hectors Tiny Nation Surrounded by Putative Enemies

Filed under: General — JVW @ 4:32 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Giving a farewell (and not a moment too soon!) speech at the State Department, Secretary of State John Kerry backed up the Obama Administration’s ugly betrayal of Israel at last week’s U.N. Security Council session, and in a way that only a smug, pompous, crass, rich dilettante who travels with a full security detail could, he essentially demanded that Israel open themselves to Islamofascist violence:

Kerry, though, on Wednesday rejected criticism “that [the U.N vote in which the U.S. abstained] abandons Israel” and described the resolution as a call for both sides to save the two-state solution “while there is still time.”

“We did not take this decision lightly,” Kerry said.

He said Israel’s “permanent settlement construction,” not the resolution, is risking peace.

“Friends need to tell each other the hard truths, and friendships require mutual respect,” Kerry said. He said the U.S. “did in fact vote in accordance with our values.”

In an at-times scathing address, Kerry went on to blast the “settler agenda” for allegedly pushing Israel toward seeking one state – which he asserted could not be both Jewish and democratic. He called the current government the “most right-wing” in Israel’s history and claimed its agenda is “driven by the most extreme elements.”

One can make a honest argument that Israeli settlements on the West Bank are hindering any sort of peace process. I might not agree with that particular assessment, seeing as how it is hard to take the Palestinians seriously as a legitimate peace partner, but I grant that it is a legitimate argument. But to advance this proposition now, after the Administration’s cluelessness towards events in Egypt, wrong choices in Libya, and ugly dithering in Syria has made things in that region far worse than they should be — to pivot and blame Israel for ruining the peace process under those circumstances is a level of delusional make-believe that I wouldn’t have thought even these vacuous narcissists would stoop to. The foreign policy of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry has been relentlessly awful for eight years, and good riddance to that horrid crew.

– JVW

85 Responses to “Witless Gigolo Hectors Tiny Nation Surrounded by Putative Enemies”

  1. I predict that Barack Obama and John Kerry will spend a lot of retirement time in the grand salons of Western Europe, where they will be far more popular and influential then they will be here in the United States.

    JVW (30a532)

  2. America sucks balls

    hoping Mr. Trump can turn it around

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  3. Clueless, reckless, cretins.

    windbag (47f3d7)

  4. Don’t they know who he is?!?!?!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  5. and teh wind whines Kerry…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  6. The dprk seems to be on point.

    narciso (d1f714)

  7. Yes they know exactly who he is.

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. The Twitter feeds of omri ceren show the fatuous and stupiditynof this crew.

    narciso (d1f714)

  9. Once a traitor, always a traitor.

    NJRob (7b9201)

  10. Netanyahu thoroughly rebuked Obama and his mouthpiece Kerry in his response. He oh, so neatly exposed them for the small and petty people they are.

    Dana (d17a61)

  11. Except that “the U.S. ‘did [NOT] in fact vote in accordance with our[?] values,’ ” since the U.S. did NOT in fact vote but, instead, abstained from voting.

    At least have the guts to vote YES when betraying an ally. Sheesh.

    DavidD (da856e)

  12. The Wind Cries Mary Teh Wind Mewls Kerry

    After all the jacks are in their boxes
    And the clowns have all cast their votes
    You can hear whimpiness mincing on down teh street footfall sounds like goats

    And teh wind whispers Kerry

    A clock is noisily ticking toward a reckoning that’s long overdue
    Somewhere Hitler is laughing
    Nowhere a land for the Jew

    And teh wind, it farts Kerry

    The camera lights, they highlight his preening
    His words of emptiness rain down on his head
    The tiny land is now under siege
    Cause the Left’s support is, is dead

    And teh wind spits Kerry

    Uh-will John Kerry ever remember the time he wore the Magic Hat
    And with his crutch, his old age
    And his Botox he minces, “Heh… I’d forgotten that”

    And teh wind sharts Kerry

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  13. One can make a honest argument that Israeli settlements on the West Bank are hindering any sort of peace process. I might not agree with that particular assessment

    Well, you could make an argument that it reduces the probability of ending the conflict by an agrred to permanent territorial division between two states from virtually nil to just about mathematically impossible, but what you cannot argue is that anything is changing very fast.

    (In that, this bears a certain similarity to complaints about the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In both cases we supposedly are near a tipping point, and soon it will be too late, and action to limit an increase in the level is urgent.)

    It could also be argued that settlements make a certain kind of peace agreement impossible, but that that kind of a peace agreement is unsound.

    Peace comes only from goodwill, or from the existence of a balance of power such that the ore powerful party is satisfied with the status quo.

    Sammy Finkelman (845007)

  14. ==Peace comes only from goodwill, or from the existence of a balance of power such that the ore powerful party is satisfied with the status quo.==

    Or winning a war and suing for peace with specific conditions. History books have record of some of that, I think.

    elissa (ddb087)

  15. Well, at least he didn’t have James Taylor singing “You’ve Got a Friend.” Maybe he could have had Yoko Ono screeching “Give Peace a Chance.”

    Walter Cronanty (f48cd5)

  16. OMG!! Debbie Reynolds too.

    elissa (ddb087)

  17. well i for one am not dying

    you can jump on the bandwagon if you want

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  18. R.I.P. Debbie Reynolds

    It’s not too hard to guess why.

    Icy (a2806d)

  19. Looks like the death reel editor at TCM has to do yet another update.

    RIP Debs.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  20. still not dying

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  21. Eddie Fischer was about the same age, when he passed.

    narciso (d1f714)

  22. well i don’t even care what age

    i’m not dying just cause cinnabon-head died

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  23. i have my own agenda

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  24. But to advance this proposition now, after the Administration’s cluelessness towards events in Egypt, wrong choices in Libya, and ugly dithering in Syria has made things in that region far worse than they should be — to pivot and blame Israel for ruining the peace process under those circumstances is a level of delusional make-believe

    The whole Obama foreign policy is based upon wishful thinking.

    The problem here is worse. It’s that they think – or, more likely were told, by some Arab diplomats – that a total Israeli stoppage of any kind of building of housing for Jews outtside the 1967 lines is necessary just to prevent the situation from getting worse.

    And now Kerry winds up lying about what the resolution says, and so did Samantha Power when it passed, claiming that the resolution makes crystal clear that incitement to violence, the glorification of terrorists, and the growth of violent extremism erodes prospects for peace, and that addressed counterproductive actions by the Palestinians such as terrorism and incitement to violence, something that it requires quite a bit of exegesis to see.

    Here, try it:

    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.761030

    You can find it, but every sentence that you can read this way can be read in other ways to. Nowere is any party besides Israel held at fault by name.

    Sammy Finkelman (845007)

  25. I love how the President who refuses to enforce the borders of his own country is lecturing another country about its borders. At the English Department of your local university, they refer to that as irony.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  26. I noticed that Debbie Reynolds did not announce the death of her daughter, but didn’t read that much into it. There was a statement after that, but it was too upbeat.

    Sammy Finkelman (845007)

  27. The only purpose of that resolution was to blame Israel for the failure to reach a settlement, with the more long term, and maybe not do long term, goal of justifying a
    war with Israel, and the lack of co-operation with the United States in its foreign policy elsewhere in the Middle East. And also splitting the west.

    For that purpose they have made the immediate sticking point settlements, which the United States and other countries find not totally unreasonable, and also made the conditions that Israel would have to agree to impossible for Israel to accept.

    There are a whole bunch of lies tied into that U.N. resolution, starting with the declaration, offered without any reasoning or proof, that the status quo is not sustainable.

    Then it treats an Arab democracy living in peace with Israel as something both sustainable or a remotely realistic goal.

    Ad it states that Israeli compliance with its demands would make final status negotiations possible.

    It’s a lie even that the “Palestinians” have any power to negotiate anything, (a lie that unfortunately Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu seem to accept) since Mohammed Abbas has said quite plainly that they cannot go against the Arab League, so either the Arab League must be at the table, or they must affirmatively vote to give Abbas a free hand, and mean it. Saudi Arabia and others who dominate the Arab League are hiding behind the Palestinians, whom they bribe.

    Sammy Finkelman (845007)

  28. 14.==Peace comes only from goodwill, or from the existence of a balance of power such that the ore powerful party is satisfied with the status quo.==

    elissa (ddb087) — 12/28/2016 @ 5:44 pm

    Or winning a war and suing for peace with specific conditions.

    Winning a war and imposing conditions falls into the category of amilitarily superior power being satisfied with the status quo (or a little less than that, or lets’s say the new status quo.)

    Sammy Finkelman (845007)

  29. Kerry is a past master at chucking precious property.

    I am overdosing on Prager’s fondest wish, clarity. I had not dared hope for such riches.

    No. I dare not hope for the GOPe to actually do anything with the straight flush they have been dealt. Folding is always the order of the day.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  30. These deaths are all happyfeet’s doing. He wished the Queen of England dead but his aim is no good.

    He got a “queen” in England, but it was the wrong one and the wrong kind.

    Then he tried again and got a princess but not a real one — just somebody who played a princess in a movie.

    Debbie Reynolds was a ricochet from Carrie Fisher, obviously.

    nk (dbc370)

  31. Barack and John F. Kerry are the co-captains of the JV team.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  32. Dark magic, never gets you back to fillory.

    narciso (d1f714)

  33. when is season 2

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  34. Next month, January 23.

    narciso (d1f714)

  35. oh good

    i need closure

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  36. Greetings:

    Me, I haven’t heard much of Gaza or Hamas this week. What about you guys ???

    “Witless gigolo” is good, but I’m sticking with the Foggiest of the Foggy Bottoms.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  37. Mr. Heinz put the world in quite the pickle with this latest spewing.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  38. Show is very different from the books.

    Books weren’t very good IMO.

    NJRob (43d957)

  39. Attorney general of israel investigating netanhayu for bribery corruption and fraud again The bottle deposit crook has dodged the long arm of the law from being collared for corruption. Netanyahu has threatened to start a war with somebody anybody if he was indicted before. maybe he can bomb iran to take the heat off.

    heat is on (f7fd4c)

  40. #39 it sounds like you’re angry at Jews.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  41. Meghan’s loathsomely cowardly and increasingly erratic daddy commends Kerry nomination “without reservation”

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  42. Birds of a feather. Both divorced their first wives for richer ones. McCain’s was not as rich but she was young and beautiful, whereas Kerry’s was not as young and beautiful but had much bigger bank balances, that’s the only difference.

    nk (dbc370)

  43. that seems like an astute observation i think

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  44. Obama’s “Present” vote on Israeli settlements gives Trump the axe to kill Climate Change

    Neo (d1c681)

  45. There is a whole prosecutorial class that acts as enforcers for the left, spataro went after the cia, instead of the salafi menace in my own blog

    narciso (d1f714)

  46. notoriously cowardly and increasingly erratic and feeble old man who voted enthusiastically for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry says

    “I and several of my colleagues have concerns about Mr. Tillerson, and some of his past activities, specifically his relationship with Vladimir Putin.”

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  47. The erection of settlements is not a bar to establishing two states. Anyone who cannot comprehend that fact knows no history.

    Michael Keohane (947544)

  48. I cannot think of any other instance in history when a group of people start successive wars of conquest, and lose each of them, only to demand territorial concessions as if they were the victors. Of course, all the wars were interspersed with an ongoing campaign of unspeakable terror directed against civilians, and accompanied by a constant drumbeat of propaganda that denied Israel’s right to even exist.
    How is it possible to negotiate with such people?
    Why should anyone even try?

    orcadrvr (41c165)

  49. If building houses is such an obvious impediment to peace, then why did Barack wait until 7 years + 11 months into his administration before he pushed for this resolution? (LOL)
    (That’s a rhetorical question.)
    On every other issue, Barack’s rhetorical trick is to say, “We can’t wait any longer! We must act now!

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  50. How do you think they took over the levant in the first place?

    narciso (d1f714)

  51. New Zealand should have found another stooge nation as resolution sponsor – they actuall benefit from several million Jews looking for a new home all at once. We missed out on the frozen chosen (Alaska, Ww2 era), but that’s a Dem screw up as well.

    urbanleftbehind (9ee190)

  52. There is speculation, in the tablet, its about their guilt over the Maori.

    narciso (d1f714)

  53. I am not aware of any instance in which John Kerry has shown the slightest bit of integrity.
    For that matter, his judgment has been doubtful as well. Note his choice of running mate
    when he ran for president. (remember Fluffy?)

    Bar Sinister (f5ce19)

  54. John Boy Ed-wards was just a fellow cad looking to trade up (looks wise at least – Liz Edwards would have been a great Patricia Richardson like FL), that stains Uncle Newt as well.

    urbanleftbehind (9ee190)

  55. Think for a moment if Trump was able to broker a deal between Israel and PLO. Following his stunning election and in the direct aftermath of President Obama, Obama would be relegated to a smaller footnote asterik as the first black president. After such a deal, Obama’s footnote would be even smaller. You think Obama wants this?

    Look at the Artic and Atlantic shelf. Fracking. Shale. Let’s say energy costs drop to such a level businesses don’t even plan for it. The economy takes off. Obama’s footnote nearly disappears.

    We’ve heard white racists. Russian Hacking. Dog Whistles. Voter Suppression. Wikileaks. Obama basically calling Clinton a lousy candidate. I could have won if I was able to run.

    This is all a play to deflect that Obama was in charge for 8 years and the Dems have been devastated at the federal, state and local level. The history books will record the first black president, the election and the last 2 months in summary fashion. Somewhere, you might find a small footnote of 1000+ lost politically elected positions. But it will be hard to find. This is an attempt to may that 1000 disappear from the record.

    Steve_in_SoCal (58e1f9)

  56. I think they are leaving Trump with conditions where war and economic stagnation are inevitable and will ruin him. And to hell with the American people!

    Patricia (5fc097)

  57. what that nasty squatty harvardtrash troll-woman at the fed did to interest rates is already crushing housing

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  58. nk @42. Not quite accurate.

    Senator Kerry and his wife Julia separated in 1982, and their civil divorce became final on July 25, 1988. Senator Kerry did not even meet his second wife until an Earth Day (= April 22) event in 1990, where he was introduced to her by Senator Heinz. He died in a plane crash on April 4, 1991. They didn’t meet again until 1992, at an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Their courtship began in 1993, and they were married on May 26, 1995, which was before his first marriage was annulled by the Roman Catholic Church in 1997.

    Sammy Fnkelman (e1ddc6)

  59. Yellen is mostly a dove on interest rates.

    Sammy Fnkelman (e1ddc6)

  60. Every foreign policy action instigated by Obama has damaged or destroyed America’s alliances built over the last century – every single one. He’s been on the other side from his first days in politics. Perhaps now even the bipartisan elites will recognize it.

    crazy (d3b449)

  61. 36. 11B40 (6abb5c) — 12/28/2016 @ 8:11 pm

    Me, I haven’t heard much of Gaza or Hamas this week. What about you guys ???

    Gaza got mentioned in a New York Times editorial today, which was probably online by 11:11 pm EST yesterday and is after all, dated December 28.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/opinion/is-israel-abandoning-a-two-state-solution.html

    Settlements are certainly not the only impediment, or even the principal one, to negotiations today. The Palestinians remain divided and their leadership malicious or hapless, with Hamas, which advocates terrorism, reigning in the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian Authority, rife with corruption, governs ineptly in the West Bank. But the settlements are an obstacle to any eventual deal, and they are Israel’s responsibility….

    What could be the endgame, if it does not include a Palestinian state? Mr. Kerry warned that without a two-state solution, Israel faces a choice between being a Jewish state and a democracy. If Israel annexes the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, this logic goes, Palestinians, many of whom are Muslims, would become the majority in the resulting state of Israel. At that point, Israelis could give these Palestinians full rights as citizens, thus diluting the Jewish character of their nation, or deny them rights and forsake democracy.

    But the Israeli far right has long imagined a different scenario: Egypt would be somehow induced to take control of the Gaza Strip, while Israel would hold most of the West Bank and somehow offload the bulk of its Palestinian residents into Jordan. Jerusalem, presumably, would be entirely under Israeli control.

    This one-state solution may remain a fantasy, but it’s gathering adherents….

    Gaza is also mentioned in this artivle, dated 9:45 pm EST. Incoming House Majority Leader and New York State Senator Charles Schumer is quoted as saying that Kerry “seems to have forgotten the history off [sic] settlements in Gaza” and that Kerry’s speech may have “emboldened extremists on both sides.”

    Israel withdrew and forced about 8,000, mostly unwilling, settlers to leave. It did so in a bad way, making it highly unlikely that Israel would agree to remove hundreds of thousands of people, and it doesn’t matter if 500,000 or 300,000, nor will they leave them behind to be ruled by Arabs. What was turned over, including greenhouses, was almost immediately destroyed by Hamas (not yet ruling Gaza) because they didn’t want any ordinary Arabs to benefit from anything left behind by Israel. Then maybe they wouldn’t want to destroy it. They might think it might one day be theirs. That’s not good for getting people to carry on war and terrorism.

    Naftali Bennett, also described as a “senior Israeli Cabinet minister and ally of the West Bank settler movement” – it’s the same person, just described in two different ways, just like with that article about the changed evaluation of Putin’s prurpose which mentioned both the two senior U.S. intellligence officials and the CIA. Bennett is head of a party in coalition with Netanyahu’s Likud.

    He is quoted as saying that Kerry’s speech is “divorced from reality” and that the Obama Administration policy has left the Middle East “in flames” what with the “genocide” in Syria, and Iran is “racing” toward a nuclear bomb. He accused the United States of “abandoning” Israel, and said Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 had created a Palestinian “terror state” and that “We’re not prepared to allow a second terror state in the heart of Israel.”

    55. Steve_in_SoCal (58e1f9) — 12/29/2016 @ 7:32 am

    Think for a moment if Trump was able to broker a deal between Israel and PLO.

    I don’t like it that he seems to be actually thinking seriously about this idea. (He’s at least claiming to)

    Of course, the real problem is the vilification and hostiliy to Israel. All this about booundaries and territories is “solving” the wrong problem.

    And another point, the “secure and recognizzed” boundaries” mentioned in UN Security Council Resolution 242 from 1967 need to be recognized not just by a Palestinian party but by most of the world at large.

    Saudi Arabia has a “peace plan,” but the whole plan is just a device to take off the pressure, and is totally insincere.

    Settlements are an issue because they can be a wedge issue between Israel and its friends.

    Sammy Fnkelman (8e756e)

  62. 60. crazy (d3b449) — 12/29/2016 @ 9:01 am

    Every foreign policy action instigated by Obama has damaged or destroyed America’s alliances built over the last century – every single one.

    That’s because every single foreign policy initiative of his has involved making compromises…

    …with reality.

    Most politicians only do that when they draw up a budget.

    Sammy Finkelman (8e756e)

  63. My daughter asked what was going on in Afghanistan, that she hasn’t heard much about it for awhile,
    I told her to start looking for a description of how bad it is some weeks after Trump is sworn in.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  64. The WaPo has little love for John Kerry:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-bloodbath-in-aleppo-will-haunt-humanity/2016/12/14/ffe0d646-c22a-11e6-9a51-cd56ea1c2bb7_story.html

    Above all, Aleppo represents a meltdown of the West’s moral and political will — and in particular, a collapse of U.S. leadership. By refusing to intervene against the Assad regime’s atrocities, or even to enforce the “red line” he declared on the use of chemical weapons, President Obama created a vacuum that was filled by Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. As recently as October, Mr. Obama set aside options drawn up by his advisers to save Aleppo. Instead, he supported the delusional diplomacy of Secretary of State John F. Kerry, whose endless appeals to Moscow for cease-fires yielded — as Mr. Putin no doubt intended — nothing more than a humiliating display of American weakness.

    On Tuesday, Mr. Obama’s U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power, delivered an impassioned denunciation of the Aleppo carnage, which she said would “join the ranks of those events in world history that define modern evil, that stain our conscience decades later.” She excoriated the Assad regime, Russia and Iran but offered no acknowledgment that the stain of Aleppo extends also to her, the president and American honor. Those who will live with the long-term consequences of the Syrian catastrophe are unlikely to be so forgiving.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  65. Vladimir Putin puts an end to most of the civil war in Syria (?) before Donald Trump is inaugurated. Putin doesn’t want any of this what’s going on to get in his way, or perhaps just wants it over.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/world/middleeast/syria-cease-fire.html

    Some groups backed by Turkey won’t be wiped out. A de facto safe zone will be established. Left out in he cold: ISIS, maybe some al Qaeda groups, or maybe not.

    Sammy Finkelman (8e756e)

  66. 61. I made two mental blunders in the same sentence.

    That should have been: Incoming Senate Minority Leader and New York Senator Charles Schumer.

    Sammy Finkelman (39f7be)

  67. Greetings, Sammy Finkelman: ( @ 61 (8e756e) – 12/29/2016 @ 9:12 am )

    Thanks for the recap, Sammy. I kind of meant my inquiry to be a rhetorical question but these daze ideology easily trumps historical analogy. That one of our designated rulers could stand up before the world to lecture us and our ally and omit the pertinent history of the Gaza debacle tells me just how deep the kimchi that we have been lowered into is

    .

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  68. Kerry did at least repeat some points Israel has made about Hamas and Fatah.

    http://time.com/4619064/john-kerrys-speech-israel-transcript/

    We have consistently supported Israel’s right to defend itself by itself, including during actions Gaza that sparked great controversy…

    And despite statements by President Abbas and his party’s leaders, making clear their opposition of violence, too often they send a different message by failing to condemn specific terrorist attacks and naming public square, streets and schools after terrorists.

    President Obama and I have made it clear to the Palestinian leadership countless times, publicly and privately, that all incitements to violence must stop. We have consistently condemned violence and terrorism and even condemned the Palestinian leadership for not condemning it. Far too often the Palestinians have pursued efforts to delegitimize Israel in international forum. We have strongly opposed these initiatives, including the recent holy unbalanced and inflammatory UNESCO resolution regarding Jerusalem.

    The UNESCO resolution did not assign any kind of historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

    And we have made clear our strong opposition to Palestinian efforts against Israel at the ICC, which only sets back the prospects for peace. And we all understand that the Palestinian authority has a lot more to do to strengthen its institutions and improve governance. Most troubling of all, Hamas continues to pursue an extremist agenda. They refuse to accept Israel’s very right to exist. They have a one state vision of their own. All of the land is Palestine.

    Hamas and other radical factions are responsible for the most explicit forms of incitement to violence. And many of the images they use are truly appalling and they are willing to kill innocents in Israel and put the people of Gaza at risk in order to advance that agenda. Compounding this, the humanitarian situation in Gaza exacerbated by the closings of the crossings is dire.

    Gaza is home to one of the world densest concentrations of people. Enduring extreme hardships with few opportunities, 1.3 million people out of Gaza’s population of 1.8 million are in need of daily assistance, food and shelter. Most have electricity less than half the time and only five percent of the water is safe to drink. And yet, despite the urgency of these needs, Hamas and other militant groups continue to rearm and to vert reconstruction materials to build tunnels, threatening more attacks on Israeli civilians that no government can tolerate.

    Now at the same time, we have to be clear about what is happening in the west bank. The Israeli prime minister publicly supports a two- state solution. But his current coalition is the most right-wing in Israel history with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements. The result is that policies of this government, which the prime minister himself just described, as more committed to settlements than any in Israel’s history are leading in the opposite direction. They are leading towards one-state….

    Sammy Finkelman (39f7be)

  69. Greetings, Sammy:

    I’m pleased that Hamas and its Gaza got some kind of mention however halfheartedly. It still seems to me that action is being required much more from Israel than from those Muslimaniacs. As to the “humanitarian” aspects, well, that spells “cash cow” to me and I’ll bet pretty much all the Palestinians. Those “humanitarian” NGOs and non-profits have sold themselves to the “Palestinian” cause long, long ago. If there isn’t enough “jizya” trickling all the way down, I’m sorry but not very much.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  70. The Washington Post Editorial Board tears into Kerry and Obama in a scathing rebuke of Obama’s 8 years of failure in the Middle East.

    On Israel, we’re right back where Obama started

    THE OBAMA administration is ending eight years of failed Middle East diplomacy exactly where it began in 2009 — with an exaggerated and misguided focus on Israeli settlement construction. As he railed at the continuing growth of West Bank Jewish housing on Wednesday with a prolixity that Fidel Castro would have admired, Secretary of State John F. Kerry sounded a lot like President Obama during the early months of his first term, when he insisted that the Israeli government freeze all construction as a starting point for negotiations on a Palestinian state. The president’s demand had the effect of encouraging Palestinian leaders to resist all concessions while seeking to delegitimize Israel internationally; the peace talks went nowhere even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a temporary construction freeze.

    Mr. Kerry’s speech was, above all, a vivid demonstration of the administration’s inability to learn from its mistakes or adjust the ideological tenets that Mr. Obama brought to office. If it has an effect, it will be to do more damage to the “two-state solution” that Mr. Kerry claimed to be defending. His histrionic rhetoric about “cementing an irreversible one-state reality” will be welcomed by extremists among both Israelis and Palestinians, who are eager to declare the two-state option dead. The one-staters include members of the incoming Trump administration, which appears headed toward flipping U.S. policy to the opposite extreme, of cheerleading for settlements — a position that would be no less blinkered and self-defeating than Mr. Obama’s.

    In fact, the two-state solution remains entirely viable, as even the settlement statistics cited by Mr. Kerry demonstrate. The administration asserts that the Jewish population in the West Bank has increased by 100,000 since 2009 — but by Mr. Kerry’s account, 80 percent of that growth was in areas Israel would likely annex in any settlement. In eight years, 20,000 people have been added to communities in territory likely to become part of Palestine — an area where 2.75 million Arabs now live. That growth of about 3 percent per annum, the product of a restraint for which Mr. Netanyahu received no White House credit, means that the Jewish population outside Israel’s West Bank fence may have decreased as a percentage of the overall population even as Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry have made it the focal point of U.S. policy.

    What blocks the two-state solution is not demography, but a failure of leadership among Israelis and Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas walked away from a generous Israeli statehood offer eight years ago and in 2014 refused to accept the framework for a settlement that Mr. Kerry outlined on Wednesday. Though he has endorsed two states, Mr. Netanyahu has been unwilling to stand up to nationalists to his right.

    It’s unlikely that Israeli and Palestinian leaders who are willing and able to reach agreement will emerge in the near future. That’s why the best U.S. policy would be to work to preserve the option of Palestinian statehood for the longer term, by combating Palestinian corruption and political dysfunction and by encouraging Israel to facilitate the growth of a viable West Bank economy. A new U.S. administration could also work to strike a deal on settlements that restricted all growth to areas that would not be part of a Palestinian state. That would require the sort of pragmatic clear-headedness that for eight years eluded the Obama administration.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/on-israel-were-right-back-where-obama-started/2016/12/29/ed1be840-cdea-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  71. Remarkable that these 2 lazy cliche-babbling do nothings get all interested in going to work only when they become lame ducks.

    Go away. You can go away mad, or go away disappointed in the American people failing to recognize your supposed genius. But for f__’s sake, GO AWAY ALREADY.

    Bugg (08921e)

  72. Memri has the tell tale records of collaboration.

    narciso (d1f714)

  73. I thought Barack was supposed to make the world like us.
    Now that he’s making all these countries angry at us, can the Nobel commmittee revoke his Peace Prize?

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  74. And now he’s playing the pantomime horse card with Russia, playing chicken with a county with 20’000 nuclear weapons, wcgr?

    narciso (d1f714)

  75. Barack promised Putin in 2012 that he would be more flexible after his re-election. He’s being an inflexible jerk.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  76. wcgr wcgw

    FTFY

    BobStewartatHome (822f64)

  77. Aw fer …. You Trumpkins take the cake. We get our panties in a wad because Obama said he would be more flexible with Putin, and now that Trump is crawling up Putin’s ass the sun shines out of it? Putin is USSR 4.0. Still a gangster government, still our most dangerous opponent.

    nk (dbc370)

  78. What could (possibly) go wrong, so they are sanctioning one who hacked the exchanges in yep states, but he has no govt connection,

    narciso (d1f714)

  79. Right rebuilding our military, counting Cuba and Iran, who ate Russians regional proxies, meanwhile obama let him invade the Ukraine shoot down a civilian airliner, let snowden get away, stripped Poland of missilecdefensrs, I could go on..

    narciso (d1f714)

  80. All this talk about one-state or two-state solutions will be mote once Iran has perfected its nuclear weapons. Talk-talk is just that, given the clarity with which the Iranians have declared their intentions. Does it comfort us to pretend that it won’t happen?

    Just asking.

    BobStewartatHome (822f64)

  81. CleArly because this will accelerate the atoms race till 1949, the us held the monopoly, then the UK got to it 52, the French in 60, the Israelis sometime after the 67 wars, the Dutch?? gave it to Pakistaniss, the Canadians helped the indians.

    narciso (d1f714)

  82. 80. BobStewartatHome (822f64) — 12/29/2016 @ 7:36 pm

    All this talk about one-state or two-state solutions will be moot once Iran has perfected its nuclear weapons. Talk-talk is just that, given the clarity with which the Iranians have declared their intentions. Does it comfort us to pretend that it won’t happen?

    What everybody is pretending is that Iran can’t possibly be planning on using them.

    They are also almost pretending that with North Korea.

    narciso @81. Also Red China in 1964. When Communist China replaced The republic of China (Taiwan) in the United Nations at the end of 1971, then the Security Council had the 5 nuclear powers on it as permanent mebers with the veto.

    There’s also North Korea.

    A high ranking North Korean diplomat in London just defected. He says Kim Jong UN is determined to get nuclear weapons by the end of 2017 – but doesn’t he already have it? Something is being lost in translation. He also opined that China won’t stop him because they don’t want a border with South Korea – which is the conventional wisdom supposedly explaining China’s motives.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/world/asia/thae-yong-ho-north-korea-defector.html

    Sammy Finkelman (151ce5)

  83. Actually we’re talking about delivery systems that can hit the us, of course that nuke deal was struck by Wendy Sherman, who was the negotiator on the Iran deal.

    narciso (d1f714)

  84. Benjamin Netanyahu likes to point out that Iran already has missiles that can reach Israel (at least with a amsll payload) – they’re developing missiles that can go further, and that’s to attack Israel.

    Sammy Finkelman (c31643)

  85. I think one possible reason why Kerry gave that speech was in order to have a more pro-Israel statement than what that U.N. resolution was.

    Sammy Finkelman (c31643)


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