Over the past several weeks the Obama Administration, through Secretary of State John Kerry, has been reaching out to Iran in an effort to negotiate an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. About two weeks ago it seemed these negotiations had failed, but on Sunday the 17th of November, it was reported that the negotiations were about to begin again.
The nuclear negotiations coupled with America’s cold shoulder policy with the interim Egyptian government has left many Israelis wondering what direction U.S. policy in the Middle East is really taking. It is apparent that the present U.S. policy is emboldening Palestinian militants, as peace talks between Palestine and Israel may not continue.
However Israel is not without fault. Israel’s Housing Ministry didn’t help the peace process when it announced on November 12th that is was constructing an additional 20,000 new homes in the disputed West Bank. This resulted in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s peace negotiators resigning.
The Abbas announcement was followed by the death of an Israeli soldier who was stabbed to death by a passenger on a bus in the northern town of Afula. This, of course, led to demonstrations all across Israel against the peace negotiations. Meanwhile Israel is continuing to release from prison scores of Palestinian terrorists as a gesture of good faith. It was the prisoner releases that helped lead to the peace talks taking place.
It should be noted that while U.S. talks with Iran have been going on, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been openly lobbying against the resolution of Iran’s nuclear weapons enrichment projects. This of course has raised the ire of Secretary of State John Kerry, who had to open his rather large mouth and blurt out, “The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos. Does Israel want a third intifada?”
Kerry’s statement was apparently seen by the Palestinians as a green light to go on the offensive if the peace talks should break down. It was Kerry who brokered the talks in the first place, and the Palestinians could use his words against his efforts to secure peace in that region.
Intifada is Arabic for “uprising” and the term was first used to describe Palestinian-Israeli violence that occurred from 1987 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2005. During both of those uprisings hundreds of Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorism and rocket attacks. The Israelis responded with reprisals that killed thousands of Palestinians.
Our ambassador to Israel has been in damage control mode ever since Kerry put his mouth into gear before engaging his brain. Given the ineptitude of the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, this writer expects the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to fail, and that within one year Iran will reach its goal of building a nuclear weapon. This of course will result in a nuclear arms race spreading across the entire Middle East.
Quote for the Week: “A pebble and a diamond are alike to a blind man.”----Unknown.
