Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
US-Israeli relations sink to rock bottom
Kerry, Netanyahu trade shots; Trump promises change
HONOLULU — It took eight years of backbiting and pretending they got along for relations between President Barack Obama’s administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to finally hit rock bottom.
Though they’ve clashed before, notably over Iran, the two governments seemed further apart than ever after a speech Wednesday by Secretary of State John Kerry and last week’s United Nations resolution.
“We cannot, in good conscience, do nothing and say nothing when we see the hope of peace slipping away,” Kerry said in a speech that ran more than an hour.
Yet, in just over three weeks, Obama will no longer be president, Kerry will no longer be secretary of state, and the U.S. will have a new leader under no obligation to embrace any of what Kerry said.
President-elect Donald Trump has assured Israel that things will be different after Jan. 20, when he’s to be inaugurated, and lamented how the Jewish state was “being treated very, very unfairly.”
Kerry took pains to voice America’s staunch commitment to Israel’s security and support for its future, and to detail U.S. complaints about Palestinian leadership and its failure to deter violence against Israelis.
He laid out a six-point framework for a potential peace deal that it will be up to the next U.S. government to try to enact, if it chooses to do so.
The White House has portrayed Obama’s decision to break with tradition by abstaining from — rather than vetoing — a U.N. Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements illegal as a reaction forced by other countries that brought it up for a vote. Obama didn’t seek this out, his aides have argued.
But the White House has also acknowledged that Obama had long considered the possibility of taking some symbolic step before leaving office to leave his imprint on the debate.
For much of the year, his staff pored over options that included a U.N. resolution outlining principles for a peace deal and a presidential speech much like the one Kerry gave Wednesday.
Kerry acknowledged Trump appears to favor a different approach.
Frustrated by years of Israeli actions he deemed counterproductive for peace, Obama appeared to have decided it was better to make his administration’s views known while still in office, even if it risked a blockbuster clash with America’s closest ally.
After Kerry spoke, Netanyahu appeared on camera in Jerusalem and suggested he was done with the Obama administration and ready to deal with Trump.
The Israeli leader faulted Kerry for obsessing over settlements while paying mere “lip service” to Palestinian attacks and incitement of violence.