Israeli-US alliance still strong, says PM
UK’s Theresa May calls Kerry’s speech inappropriate and unproductive
The strong alliance between Israel and the United States remains firm, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, following days of harshly criticizing Washington for enabling the passage of an anti-settlement resolution at the UN Security Council last Friday.
This alliance, he said, “is strong even when there are disagreements, and this reflects the deep level of support by the American people for the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu’s comments, made at a graduation ceremony for air force cadets at the Hatzerim Air Base, came less than 24 hours after he expressed “deep disappointment” with Wednesday night’s speech by US Secretary of State John Kerry, which was a harsh indictment of Netanyahu and his government’s policies. Netanyahu said on Wednesday night that Kerry’s speech was “almost as unbalanced as the anti-Israel resolution,” which he claimed the US “organized, advanced and brought” to the UN Security Council.
“I expect to work together with the new administration to strengthen even more the security of both our nations,” he said. “A strong Israel is an asset for the US and a guarantee of security in the Middle East.”
Netanyahu said he is very grateful to “the American people, the American Congress
and the American administration for its security aid to Israel.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May came out against Kerry’s address, with a spokesman saying on Thursday, that disproportionately focusing on settlements and criticizing the composition of the Israeli government is not a constructive way to work toward solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We do not believe that the way to negotiate peace is by focusing on only one issue, in this case the construction of settlements, when clearly the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians is so deeply complex,” the spokesman said.
In his speech on Wednesday, the US secretary of state called Netanyahu’s coalition “the most right wing in Israel’s history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements... more committed to settlements than any in Israel’s history... leading toward one state.”
On that, May’s spokesman commented: “We do not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the democratically elected government of an ally.” The British government believes negotiations must take place between Israel and the Palestinians with backing from the international community, the spokesman added.
The comments came less than a week after the UK voted in favor of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning Israel for settlement activity, the first resolution critical of Israel not vetoed by the US since 2009.
May’s spokesman defended the vote by saying the British government “continue[s] to believe that the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal. But we are also clear that the settlements are far from the only problem in this conflict. In particular, the people of Israel deserve to live free from the threat of terrorism, with which they have had to cope for too long.”
Jerusalem expressed outrage at the resolution, pointing out that its parameters called Israel’s presence at the Western Wall a war crime.
Despite his praise, Netanyahu’s speech Thursday did include jabs at Kerry and the Obama administration.
Speaking to the pilots, he said that an aerial view of the region will illustrate the extent of the destruction that has swept over the area since the onset of the Arab Spring, a period of turbulence, mayhem and destruction that Netanyahu pointed out has lasted longer than World War II. This, he said, is the true tragedy of the Middle East, “not our conflict with the Palestinians,” which he said was “relatively marginal.”
“In a few months of fighting in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, and with no connection to us, more people have been killed than during the entire 100-year conflict with the Palestinians,” he said.
“With all due respect to those who talk about the [Israeli-Palestinian issue] as the heart of the conflict in the Middle East, this is the big, true tragedy that is hitting the region,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, government officials said Jerusalem still remains concerned there may still be another move against Israel in the Security Council prior to President-elect Donald Trump taking over on January 20, despite Kerry’s comments.
Kerry, in his speech on Wednesday, said: “There are other countries in the UN who believe it is our job to dictate the terms of a solution in the Security Council. Others want us to simply recognize a Palestinian state, absent an agreement. But I want to make clear today, these are not the choices that we will make.”
But Israeli officials remain worried, concerned that the Americans are playing a word game, and that while the US might not bring such a resolution to the Security Council, it has not said it will use its veto if others do.
Meanwhile, veteran US Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross criticized Kerry for emphasizing this conflict in the context of everything else taking place in the region.
“This is what he gives a 75-minute speech on, not what’s happening in Syria, not what’s happening in Iraq, not what the Russians are doing,” he said in an Army Radio interview.
Ross said the speech was a case of Kerry wanting to get something “off of his chest. Part of the problem with the Kerry approach is that it’s an all or nothing approach. And the problem with an all or nothing approach is that it always produces nothing.” •