Thursday, October 15, 2015

Kerry is mistaken - Elliott Abrams



by Elliott Abrams


The secretary of state ‎seems to believe that when  Palestinians stab Israelis, the real culprits are people ‎who build new housing units.

Secretary of State John Kerry made an unhelpful, mistaken, ill-informed comment about the ‎current wave of Palestinian violence yesterday when speaking at Harvard University.‎

"So here's the deal," Kerry said. "What's happening is that unless we get going, a two-state solution could ‎conceivably be stolen from everybody. And there's been a massive increase in settlements ‎over the course of the last years. Now you have this violence because there's a frustration ‎that is growing, and a frustration among Israelis who don't see any movement."‎

Kerry does not know what he is talking about. There has simply not been "a massive ‎increase in settlements over the course of the last years." There has been a steady growth ‎in settlement population, though the bulk of that growth is in the major blocs -- such as ‎Maaleh Adumim -- that Israel will clearly retain in any final agreement. 

Kerry's imprecision is ‎another problem. Does he mean there has been a massive increase in the number of ‎settlements? That's flatly false. Does he mean a massive increase in settlement size, as ‎existing settlements expand physically? That's also flatly false. The so-called "peace map" or ‎‎"Google Earth map" of the West Bank has changed very little.‎

The frequent Palestinian claim that Israel is "gobbling up" the West Bank so that "peace will ‎be impossible" is what Kerry is here repeating when he says "a two-state solution could ‎conceivably be stolen from everybody." It's a false claim and he should know it. If that is not ‎what Kerry meant, he should be far more careful when he speaks about such an explosive ‎topic, and at such an explosive moment.‎

Moreover, his claim is plain silly. The slow but steady growth in population in settlements is ‎a completely unpersuasive explanation for the sudden outbreak of violence. That outburst ‎of violence and terror appears linked to lies about Israel changing the status quo at the ‎Temple Mount. But whatever its explanation, the false linkage to ‎settlements is of a piece with the Obama administration's continuing obsession with that ‎subject, despite all the evidence. It's remarkable that the secretary of state, who has spent ‎so much time with Israelis and Palestinians and has visited Jerusalem repeatedly, has not ‎bothered to learn the basic facts. He is instead parroting Palestinian propaganda. 

In fact, ‎Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under pressure and criticism from settler groups ‎because he has restrained settlement population growth beyond the security barrier. To ‎suffer those political attacks and then hear criticism from the secretary of state about a ‎‎"massive increase in settlements" helps explain the lack of confidence Israeli officials feel in ‎the Obama administration.‎

Kerry is doing something else here that is even worse: blaming the victims. The State ‎Department has of course condemned acts of terror, but here in a question and answer ‎period we get beyond official statements and see what Kerry really appears to think. He ‎seems to believe that the real culprits, when Palestinians stab Israelis to death, are people ‎who build a new housing unit in a settlement.‎

The Kerry remarks at Harvard were morally obtuse and factually wrong.‎



Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=14025

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

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