Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) was quite upset at Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) for his very public criticism of US Secretary of State John Kerry. While it is understandable that such criticism puts Ya’alon in a slightly uncomfortable position on the eve of his upcoming meetings in Washington, it must be said that Kerry has, indeed, revealed an uncanny ignorance of the Middle East with his latest statements, which certainly seemed to imply that Israel is to blame for the rise of ISIS and other manifestations of Islamic extremism in the region. Such comments, definitely intended for public consumption, should not go unanswered, so therefore, let’s examine his words in retrospect.
Said Kerry:
“There wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation… People need to understand the connection of that. And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity.”
Which leaders was he speaking about? Who are those moral leaders whose advice he trusts? Could it be Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey– who has refused to put troops on the ground to fight ISIS and has done his utmost to torpedo American efforts to assist the Kurds, who are under fierce attack by ISIS? Or could Kerry be talking about King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia – whose female citizens aren’t allowed to drive and whose husbands are legally allowed to physically abuse them? Or perhaps Kerry was referring to a moral authority such as Mahmoud Abbas – whose Palestinian Authority pays salaries to Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Jihad terrorists who have proudly slaughtered and maimed thousands of Israeli children?
Whether knowingly or not, Kerry continues to parrot the false, but by now well-known, “new underdog” narrative of the Islamic world, in which Israel, and only Israel, is blamed for denying the “rights” of the “Palestinians”, while raising that defamation to new levels by strangely implying that such “denial of rights” has caused the rise of ISIS.
True, Ya’alon was angry at Bennett for his public criticism of Kerry, which set the stage for a possible tongue-lashing from the White House upon Ya’alon’s arrival in Washington. However, there comes a time when we need to stop tip-toeing around the issues, so as not to “offend” the big master in DC, for fear of losing financial assistance, which won’t be cut off anyhow. It’s instructive to remember that American military aid may be good for Israel, but the United States stands with Israel primarily because it’s in America’s interests, and for that reason, there is support for Israel across the aisle in Congress (even if it is stronger these days on the Republican side).
In any event, Kerry‘s apparent ignorance of Middle East realities revealed by his misuse of terms like “humiliation”, ”denial”, and “absence of dignity” is troubling and shows a disturbing lack of understanding of the facts, and it is this misunderstanding of these loaded terms that needs to be explained to him:
1. “Humiliation” is what the Islamic terrorists around the world are trying to do to the rest of us with their violent attacks on all those who disagree with them, attacks that are expressed both physically and verbally.
2. “Denial” is the religious/culture war that they are carrying out against free people throughout Western civilization, in which Islamic terrorists are forcing people to live in fear of speaking the truth about the goal of Islamic domination that is inherent in Islamic theology (Jihad – holy war against non-Muslims). People are being repeatedly told by the head honcho in the White House that it is forbidden to even mouth the expression “Islamic Terrorism”.
3. Last but not least, the only “absence of dignity” is the inability of Israeli children to walk and play in certain parts of their country, without fear that Islamic terrorists will murder them with weapons provided by the 5.4 billion in funds that were raised for Hamas, with the help of none other than John Kerry.
John Kerry should apologize to every Israeli and every American fighting ISIS and other Islamic terrorists for his erroneous comments, which are far removed from the reality here in the Middle East. If he truly wanted to learn the facts, he would do what Thomas Jefferson did when confronted with the Islamic terrorism of the Barbary Pirates – to get a copy of the Koran, in order to learn about the Islamic mentality and the growing popularity of its Jihadist ideology, which are the real cause for the rise of Islamic extremism.
If reading the Koran is a bit overwhelming for him, he can always get a copy of my book, “The Islamic Tsunami: Israel and America in the Age of Obama”. He might learn a few things about Israel, Islamic terrorism, the Middle East, and how all of this relates to ISIS and the beheading of Americans.
Reprinted with author’s permission
