John Kerry's heresy

[bemildred]

Hillary Clinton would never have used the word when she was US secretary of state, because she still has presidential ambitions. John Kerry, the current secretary of state, has no further ambitions in that direction, which may be why he dared to use the words “apartheid” and “Israel” in the same sentence. Or maybe he just didn’t realize that the world would hear about it.

Kerry spoke last week to a group of high-ranking officials from the US, Europe and Japan known as the Trilateral Commission about the failure of his year-long attempt to revive the “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinians. Somebody at the meeting secretly recorded his comments, which were published by the Daily Beast on Monday, and suddenly he was in very hot water.

What he said was that the long-sought “two-state solution” was the only real alternative to a “unitary” Israeli-ruled state that included all the territory between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea – and ruled over millions of Palestinians in the territories that have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.

Those Palestinians, most of whom cannot remember a time when they did not live under Israeli control, have no political rights within Israel. The two-state solution, under negotiation off and on for the past twenty years, would give them a state of their own, but most people had despaired some time ago of getting Israel to agree to an independent Palestine.

http://www.embassynews.ca/columns/2014/05/01/john-kerrys-heresy/45473

[Evergreen Emerald]

1. When I saw the muted reaction on DU, I imagined...

the DU explosion if Clinton had used that same language.

[bemildred]

2. The subject is less controversial than it once was.

It looks like a duck and walks like a duck and it's been doing that for some time now, so people don't pop off as quickly when it's called a duck. There have been some reactions, but the news media are very busy managing other crises too, so the noise level isn't much, you are right. The frame of the debate has changed, one of Bibi's accomplishments.

[Israeli]

21. duck bemildred ....

just playing with you and with the english meaning of duck

ref : http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/duck

" duckverb : to lower your head or body suddenly to avoid being seen or hit

: to lower (your head) suddenly

: to avoid (something, such as a punch) by lowering your head or body suddenly "



?w=477&h=320

source :

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/if-it-looks-like-apartheid-walks-like-apartheid-and-quacks-like-apartheid-its-apartheid/

[bemildred]

22. Yeah, English is good for that sort of multiple meaning and ambiguity.

And I make no claims of originality in using that cliche.

I learned when I was much younger to believe what I see and not what somebody tells me to see.

Someone will chime in with Star Trek here and how many fingers do you see Captain Kirk? I'm not a Trekkie, but I've seen that one here often enough. "I see four fingers", or whatever it is.

[blm]

3. Why would DU explode if Clinton had dared to speak the truth? She would've been applauded for NOT

carrying Bibi's water, yet again, as most US politicians have done for years.

[mylye2222]

6. I do agree with you blm

And Kerry is a mzn of word and unlike her he is not afraid to take risks. His whole career shows it strongly. BRAVO MR SECRETARY.

[Jefferson23]

4. Whether Kerry planned to have this leaked or not, it's out there, and nothing will change the

fact that it was said by a US SoS.

I question whether the leak was not planned because I do feel that by the end of his term, he will
make damn clear that he is not the reason there won't be a peace deal and I think he hopes the leak
will have Netanyahu reconsider his generous framework offer. In no way does this help the Israeli government,
I can't see there is any advantage to it for them..you can't generally put the apartheid word back in
the bottle. Kerry knows that and so does Israel.

Abbas got lucky, no matter how the information was revealed, hopefully he'll use it well.

[shaayecanaan]

5. i liked this bit

It was clumsily phrased, but the basic idea is common in both Israeli and Palestinian political discourse. Even if Israel never formally annexes the occupied territories, it has been building Jewish settlements all over them for decades, and the Palestinian inhabitants are effectively controlled by the Israeli government.

If this situation continues indefinitely, and the Palestinians must live out their lives as mere residents without no political rights, then they are in the same position as the black South Africans who lived all their lives under white rule without citizenship or the vote. That was the very essence of apartheid.

[Jefferson23]

23. Me too, very telling. n/t

[azurnoir]

7. IMO Mr Kerry was quite aware the world would hear about it and the predictable reactions

that would follow, he is no political neophyte.

However he put the word out there, Jimmy Carter broke the ice, Desmond Tutu followed, and now Mr Kerry- a first I believe from a sitting American politician

[bemildred]

8. Meanwhile: Jewish Group Votes to Reject J Street

An umbrella organization voted to exclude a dovish pro-Israel group that has struck a chord with younger Jews but is viewed warily by hawkish pro-Israel groups

The leading Jewish umbrella organization in the United States voted Wednesday against admitting the liberal-leaning Israel advocacy group J Street, highlighting the often contentious rifts that exist within the American Jewish community.

The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, comprising 50 voting members of varying size, voted to deny J Street membership. Of the 42 groups represented at the vote, 17 supported J Street’s membership, 22 opposed and three abstained, the New York Times reports, citing people present because the actual count was private. J Street needed 34 votes to join.

http://time.com/84395/j-street-aipac-israel-zionism-2/

[Jefferson23]

9. The crazy thing about JStreet being rejected is that they support the land swaps that would

leave Israel with the vast majority of the West Bank.

I believe they also support Livni, who is no cwazy librul.

[Scootaloo]

15. Bingo. I've described J-Street as "AIPAC for Kids" and so far, that seems to hold up n/t

[Jefferson23]

17. Yes, it is a misunderstood group..they temper their disapproval as opposed to

the grown ups version, which is a full throttle approach.

Sad too, because it should be discussed more openly that if the Palestinians
do not, in the end, have a viable state, no peace will be possible. JStreet
is dishonest imo, they are not helping Israel see the bigger picture.

[azurnoir]

10. I guess the older lobby groups are not yet ready to accept Pro-Israel and pro-peace

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, told the Jewish newspaper The Forward that the groups backing J Street’s membership represented a larger number of Jews, meaning the group effectively “won the popular vote.”

[bemildred]

11. Yep, nobody likes competition.

Especially old and self-important people being displaced by a younger generation. A theme evident no only in Israel.

[azurnoir]

13. ah but J-Streets not done yet

J Street hits back: Conference of Presidents doesn't represent the Jewish community

Pro-Israel lobby, that was denied admission to major umbrella group of American Jewish organizations, starts petition to unseat executive vice chairman of body.

After it was denied admission to a major umbrella group of American Jewish organizations, J Street decided on Thursday to hit back with a sarcastic petition targeting Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents, and calling for his dismissal.

"Dear Malcolm, thank you for finally making it clear that the Conference of Presidents is not representative of the voice of the Jewish community," the pro-Israel lobby wrote.

"We recognize the need for an open and honest conversation on Israel in the United States. We appreciate you being honest. Now we'll work on the openness."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4515584,00.html

[Jefferson23]

14. JStreet never had any associations with BDS, what are they talking about? n/t

[azurnoir]

16. But they did not condem John Kerry for mentioning it

Which as we've seen gets interpreted as being the same as full throated endorsement

http://jstreet.org/blog/post/on-threat-of-bds-dont-shoot-the-messenger_1

[Jefferson23]

18. The link won't open for me..but I trust what you're reporting.

[azurnoir]

19. I think J-Streets site is down

when I go to their site I get this it's the same message as at the link

A Database Error Occurred

Error Number: 145

Table './jstreet_CI_V1/ci_session' is marked as crashed and should be repaired

SELECT * FROM (`ci_session`) WHERE `session_id` = 'b8c5542158f80f4cc101af7cc541e3fe' AND `user_agent` = 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:28.0) Gecko'

Filename: libraries/Session.php

Line Number: 212

http://jstreet.org/

[Jefferson23]

20. Ah, ok...they're reformatting or something, perhaps. I will try later. n/t

[mylye2222]

12. it should Not be an heresy

JK spoke the TRUTH.
And that private conversation should not have been taped

And Kerry should not had have to apology to those rw dumbs for speaking right