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Photo: Shahar Azran
'Kerry wants to succeed where his dozen predecessors, governments and countries have failed'
Photo: Shahar Azran
Eitan Haber

Has Kerry lost his mind?

Op-ed: US secretary of state is determined to end Mideast conflict. What if he succeeds?

US Secretary of State John Kerry has lost his mind: He appears to be completely serious about getting both sides, the Israeli and the Palestinian, to sign some kind of interim and temporary deal, which should eventually lead to reconciliation and agreement between the two people. John Kerry has gone mad: He wants to succeed where his dozen predecessors, governments and countries have failed.

 

 

Kerry appears to have decided to do what all his predecessors have not done: To end the conflict which has destroyed and is destroying many lives among both people, to terminate the endless bloodshed once and for all. Those witnessing his efforts say he is obsessive, that he is devoting his body and soul to this mission, that he is raising hell and the roof to succeed. Help, he might succeed, and then what? What will we do with peace and without a historical conflict with the Palestinians? Will we "eat" ourselves? Between us? One another?

 

Kerry has already landed here about a dozen times, and he won't despair. He comes again, goes again. Has he nothing else to do with his life than deal with the bleeding Middle East? People say he sees dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian settlement as his life's dream, that he is preoccupied with it every day, all day. That he is determined. That he has sworn to himself to return home with an accomplishment. He is racking his brains, he is not despairing, he doesn't want to go home with his tail between his legs. John Kerry must have lost his mind.

 

Now, after seeing and experiencing "who he is dealing with," on both sides, he has two main options: One, to slam the Palestinians' and Israelis' heads against each other, to "bang on the table," and to tell them: Dear friends, this is the American proposal for an interim agreement until the conflict is solved – take it or leave it."

 

They say that 100 security professionals are working on the formula which will satisfy the Israeli and Palestinian delegations on this matter. If it is indeed so, and if Kerry really means what he is thinking and saying, we are in for quite a difficult period, to say the least, with Washington.

 

The Americans have had enough of failures in the Middle East and are sick and tired – as are many American Jews – of the eternal involvement in the bitter conflict. In such a case, the US president might just abandon the handling of peace failing to arrive, leave Kerry in the arena on his own and pray for the messenger's success.

 

There is often a painful price to an American president who has had enough of us, even one who is not facing reelection. When the American secretary of state, His Excellency Henry Kissinger, ordered a "reevaluation" at the time and halted security cooperation for a while, the Israel Air Force's planes nearly turned into a pile of scrap iron.

 

The second option is that the US president will put all his weight (how much does this man, who looks like a $1-million model, even weigh?) and won’t let go, slamming both sides' heads until they sign.

 

And there is a third option too: That the US president, John Kerry, the European Union and everyone else – will throw us to the dogs and to the wars, admit that the Israelis and Palestinians are "impossible" and capitulate after Jerusalem and Ramallah officials say that "the American proposal is unreasonable." That's the case we know as "either the nobleman dies or the dog dies," and we will be left here, all alone, to bleed to life or death.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.31.13, 20:37
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