If the Nov. 24 visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Jerusalem is to be judged by its contribution to advancing a diplomatic deal between Israel and the Palestinians, then Israeli news editors were right to push this non-event to the tail end of the news broadcasts and the back pages of the papers. The stories about the young women who were allegedly sexually harassed by Knesset member Yinon Magal (HaBayit HaYehudi) are far more newsworthy and interesting than another meaningless signature by Kerry on the attendance sheet at the prime minister’s office. The affair is a reminder that even in the religious HaBayit HaYehudi party — the standard bearer of “family values” — there are those who neglect to obey the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Even the scandal de jour involving Oren Hazan, the contemptible Knesset member (Likud) who, metaphorically, runs red lights and doesn’t even stop to let a wheelchair pass, is more relevant to Israel’s citizens and the residents of the occupied territories. Hazan’s sleazy, victorious smiles are a reminder of the flimsy foundations propping up the Israeli government.

But Kerry’s visit should not be judged by its usefulness to the diplomatic process, and not even by its contribution to preventing further deterioration of Israeli-Palestinian ties. The importance of this visit lies in the additional proof it provides of the impotence of the world’s strongest power. This visit belongs in the lengthy annals of US initiatives that intensified the sense of despair and hopelessness among the Israeli and Palestinian peace camps regarding the diplomatic option. In the words of Brig. Gen. Guy Goldstein, deputy coordinator of Israeli Government Activities in the Territories, “Absent combined diplomatic steps by Israel and the Palestinian Authority [PA], the current clash will not end.” Speaking on Oct. 28 at a conference at Netanya Academic College, the senior military officer added, “We are sitting on top of a kind of powder keg. Unless significant change occurs, mostly or entirely in the diplomatic arena, we will probably keep experiencing what we’re experiencing today.” His comments, the likes of which are being made behind closed doors by many defense officials, can be summed up in these words: Every piece of evidence pointing to the lack of significant change, such as another futile visit by an American secretary of state, pumps additional fuel to the fire burning under the powder keg.

Briefing reporters in Abu Dhabi on the eve of his stop in Israel, Kerry said, “We have ideas for how things could advance. But this street violence doesn’t provide any leader with the framework within which they could look their people in the eye and say, ‘There’s a reason we’re sitting down and talking.'” It is hard to overstate the importance of this sentence, spoken by the most important diplomat in the world. The US secretary of state replaced the message that peace is the right answer to violence, with words to the effect that violence delays peace. In fact, he supported the approach presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day at the start of their meeting, according to whom “there can be no peace when we have an onslaught of terror — not here or not anywhere else in the world.”

Kerry, for his part, stressed that “there’s no justification for Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis.” Indeed, there’s no justification for the murder of parents in front of their children, or for stabbing people walking down the street in towns such as Kiryat Gat. But Kerry “forgot” to say that there’s no justification for the continuing occupation and for denying basic human rights to millions of Palestinians. He thus buttressed Netanyahu’s argument that there’s no difference between a 13-year-old Palestinian who stabbed a Jew in the settlement of Givat Ze’ev and a terrorist who fired indiscriminately at those sitting in a Paris cafe. All of them, Netanyahu told Kerry, are victims of “that same assault by militant Islamists and forces of terror.”