Bicycle enthusiast and Secretary of State John Kerry is the diplomatic face of a historically unprecedented anti-Israel Obama presidency. Not since Jimmy Carter has a sitting United States president been this hostile to one of its closest allies in the world.
The United States’ intimate relationship with Israel is paramount to the security concerns of both countries. It doesn’t take a military expert to notice that the way in which Obama, Kerry, and for that matter, the president’s diplomatic cabinet, have been treating the government of Jewish state is not just morally problematic but profoundly stupid from a strategic standpoint.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new head media adviser agrees. “Kerry’s mental age doesn’t exceed that of a 12-year-old,” Ran Baratz once said.
Here are five reasons why he’s right:
1. John Kerry negotiated the Iran Nuclear Deal, the most naive accord in modern American history. There are so many flaws with the nuclear deal Kerry signed with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif that it almost parodies itself. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro points out Senate Democrats and Obama loyalists even “held a party on Capitol Hill to celebrate the disastrous Iran Deal that will allow Iran to go nuclear without consequence in a decade, and fund them with billions of dollars that will go toward expansionist terrorism in the meantime.” Other than the self-evident submission of will to Iran’s apocalyptic-minded mullahs, Kerry’s diplomatic baby is almost certain to fail. Independent Journal lists the major pitfalls of the disastrously stupid deal:
1. A Final Deal is Not Guaranteed.
2. Both Parties Interpret the Framework Differently.
3. The Framework Does Not Include Measures for Enforcement.
4. A Final Deal Will Not Prevent a Nuclear Bomb.
5. Iran Benefits from Lifted Sanctions without Complying.
6. The Balance of Power Will Tip in a Chaotic Middle East.
7. The Framework Leaves Out Human Rights.
2. John Kerry’s anti-Israel hostility has destroyed the prospect for peace. Not only is Kerry’s animus toward Israel incredibly transparent, but his policies have failed to stabilize Arab-Israeli tensions. In fact, many analysts assert that Kerry’s interference in the region has exacerbated violence. Writing for The Times of Israel, policy expert Avi Issacharoff posits:
Despite the tendency to criticize US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts, credit should be given where credit is due…Kerry did manage to facilitate something in the Middle East: unparalleled unanimity.
Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were all in agreement that Kerry’s efforts were undermining the attempt to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as quickly as possible. Moreover, Kerry’s framework and the ideas he presented led to an extraordinary phone call taking place between a senior Palestinian Authority official and an Israeli counterpart, during which the two mocked the senior diplomat’s naivete and his failure to understand the regional reality.
Both the Israelis and the Palestinians hate Kerry. The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon notes, “It takes a certain artistry to irritate and annoy not only the Israeli left and the Israeli right at the same time, but also both Jerusalem and Ramallah. US Secretary of State John Kerry has found that artistry.”
Kerry’s anti-Israel rhetoric makes his diplomatic impotence all the more troubling. Shockingly, Kerry has echoed pro-Palestinian positions and narratives framing Israel as a pariah state. In nearly every press conference centered around the Arab-Palestinian conflict, Kerry demonizes Jewish “settlers,” implying that they contribute to the “cycle of violence,” the administration’s sanitizing catch-phrase for Palestinian terrorism against innocent Israeli civilians. Supported by Kerry’s State Department, the Obama administration spied on Israel to help Iran. Most perniciously, Kerry blamed Israel in the wake of the Palestinian knife intifada against Israeli seniors and children, virtually ignoring Hamas’ genocidal declaration to “kill all Jews.“
“Kerry’s mental age doesn’t exceed that of a 12-year-old.”
Ran Baratz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new head media adviser
3. John Kerry’s Syria policy is ‘criminally stupid.’ The Secretary of State’s ambivalence Bashar al-Assad allowed the Damascus dictator to lay waste to Syria. As a result, millions of refugees are now flooding into Europe in an effort to escape Assad’s tyranny and an inhabitable Syria. In 2010, Kerry said:
Let me just say that I am . . . absolutely convinced that carefully calibrated diplomacy, that if that is what we engage in, that Syria will play a very important role in achieving a comprehensive peace in the region and in putting an end to the five decades of conflict that have plagued everybody in this region.
After over four years, crossed red-lines and hundreds of thousands of dead Syrians, John Kerry’s “carefully calibrated diplomacy” clearly hasn’t worked out the way hoped.
4. John Kerry is the star gymnast in Obama’s Olympics of rhetorical acrobatics. Like White House spokesman Josh Earnest, Kerry manipulates language to paint President Obama in the most pacifist light imaginable. Despite fighting a handful of wars and sending more troops to highly volatile regions in the Middle East, Obama is still clamoring to the campaign pledge of opposing Bush’s war at all costs. Citing Instapundit, Reason quips, “Secretary of State John Kerry wants you to know that whatever it is you call it when you drop bombs on people you want to kill, send troops and advisers to foreign lands to kill and train people, it isn’t war.” Reason adds, “And, more important, it’s the sort of doublespeak whose obfuscations pave the way to greater and greater involvement while pretending the exact opposite.” For Kerry, “War is the wrong terminology and analogy,” for weaponized military engagement.
5. John Kerry patronized Americans, defending their right to be ‘stupid,’ while inventing a new country. In 2013, Kerry told an audience in Berlin, Americans “have a right to be stupid.” Shortly after, Kerry invented the country of “Kyrzakhstan” as he was trying to celebrate the work of American diplomats. “Call it the flub heard ‘round the world,” says The Washington Times. “At least Mr. Kerry’s faux pas will likely be short-lived. The State Department has scrubbed his error from official agency transcripts of his speech, The Telegraph reports.”