RT:
US threatens that relations with Israel could worsen over Kerry criticism
Published
time: July 28, 2014 17:26
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (AFP Photo / Win McNamee)
On
Friday last week, Sec. Kerry reportedly presented Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu with a draft proposal calling for a seven-day halt of
fighting in Gaza, where more than 1,000 Palestinians — mostly civilians — have
been killed in the last month; in that same span, the Israeli Defense Forces
have suffered nearly 50 deaths but have continued an onslaught that the United
National Security Council formally opposed early Monday.
The
“Framework for Humanitarian Cease-Fire in Gaza” presented by Kerry failed to
impress Netanyahu’s office, however, and Israel has since embarked on a
campaign to condemn the secretary of state’s efforts by saying the US proposal
did not do enough to stop Palestinian militants with the group Hamas from furthering
its own, comparatively less successful campaign against the IDF.
According
to Barak Ravid, a correspondent for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, the draft “shocked” local politicians because it “placed Israel and Hamas on the same level.” Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livini told
JTA the proposal was “completely unacceptable” and “would strengthen extremists in the region,” and other officials reportedly considered
agreeing to the terms a “surrender” to Hamas. The Times
of Israel
wrote that “Kerry’s
mistakes are embarrassing,”
and on Monday a new column in Haaretz accusied Kerry of “ruin[ing] everything” and warned “Very senior officials in Jerusalem described
the proposal that Kerry put on the table as a ‘strategic terrorist attack.’”
In
response, the Associated Press reported Monday afternoon that US officials say
their relationship with Israel could be put in jeopardy if criticism of the
secretary continues to emerge from one of America’s most closely held allies.
Unnamed officials, the AP reported, “said the personal attacks on Kerry crossed
a line and were particularly disappointing at a time of active conflict.”
And even
after both Hamas and Israel agreed to put a hold on fighting briefly over the
weekend, experts fear a prolonged end is a faint possibility at best.
“There is nothing to suggest that either side
is particularly desperate for a cease-fire,” Robert Danin, a fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations and a former State Department official, told the New
York Times
this week. “Neither
side believes a cease-fire will be the end of the conflict, and they are
looking at a truce as a way to position themselves for the next round of
fighting.”
Following
urging from the UN early Monday to halt the killings, Netanyahu fired back by
accusing the international body of siding with Hamas, “a murderous terrorist
group that attacks Israeli civilians.”
“It’s a matter of their political will. They
have to show their humanity as leaders, both Israeli and Palestinian,” responded UN Secretary-General Ban
ki-Moon, according to Reuters. “Why these leaders are making their people to
be killed by others? It’s not responsible, (it’s) morally wrong.”
Meanwhile,
Palestinian leaders are reportedly not too keen on the American statesman at
the moment either. A senior Palestinian Authority official and an Israeli
counterpart apparently mocked Kerry’s proposal during a weekend phone call, the
Times of Israel reported, and an unnamed PA official told the Saudi-owned
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Kerry’s plan would “destroy the Egyptian bid” for a ceasefire — the groundwork of which
was used for the State Dept.’s own draft proposal.
No comments:
Post a Comment