Kerry responds forcefully to Israeli insults
The US State Department's response to recent Israeli insults reflects the new, tougher stance adopted by the Obama administration.
US senior officials, including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, have for years been the subject of Israeli criticism and overtly nasty insults. For the most part, they have tried to absorb such attacks and continue to pursue a healthy, positive relationship with their most important ally — until now. Secretary Kerry has shown Israelis and the world that he is human and that he and his State Department are not going to take it any longer.
The most recent Israeli attacks coincided with Washington’s plans to provide a bridging plan to break out the fruitless Palestinian-Israeli direct talks. While suggesting such ideas is bound to create opposition on both sides, the Israelis responded with a nastiness the Americans said is unfitting of a trusted ally.
The hard-line Israeli defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, has been telling anyone willing to listen how he loathes Kerry and his plans. He went so far as to say the secretary's efforts stemmed from an “incomprehensible obsession” and that his drive for peace was “messianic.” At one point, Ya'alon stated that the US security plan designed by Gen. John Allen is “not worthy of the paper it is written on” and that Americans do not know anything about security. In perhaps the most insulting of all such statements, Ya'alon is quoted as saying that he hopes the US secretary of state wins the Nobel Peace Prize and then “leave us alone.”
Ya'alon was not the only cabinet minister whose statements irked Kerry and his hard-working team. The right-wing minister of housing, Uri Ariel, claimed that a Jan. 13 announcement on new settlement units was made “in coordination” with and "after the approval” of Kerry.
