I ask you to imagine what a two-state solution will mean for Israel, Palestine, Jordan and the region. Imagine what it would mean for trade and for tourism – what it would mean for developing technology and talent, and for future generations of Israeli and Palestinian children. Imagine Israel and its neighbors as an economic powerhouse in the region. – John Kerry, US secretary of state, Saban Forum, December 7.
Enough is enough. At some stage there must be a limit to the verbal garbage – I resist the strong temptation to employ a somewhat coarser epithet – that one can be subjected to before giving vent to pent-up exasperation and outrage. A spade is still a spade.
Of late, this limit has been breached with increasing frequency – particularly when the matter of the “Palestinian issue” is broached.
As the clock runs out on the viability of the so-called “two-state-solution,” efforts to sustain it have become increasingly desperate, bizarre and disingenuous.
The annual Saban Forum held in Washington over the weekend provided ample examples of this near-hysteria, thinly veiled by the niceties of diplomatic decorum and dialect, masquerading as far-sighted diplomacy and inspired statesmanship.
No dogma, however disproven, no folly, however farcical, no notion, however nonsensical was discarded.
They were all bandied about, with great fanfare, as if they comprised a bold, yet-untried vision of a new future for peace, prosperity and regional understanding – rather than a proven recipe for calamity.
But smooth semantics cannot transform frenetic fantasy into sound substance. Merely because one describes a spade as a “manually operated device whose principal function is the creation of elevation differentials on the surface of the earth” does not mean that a spade is anything more lofty or exalted than a spade.
Similarly, shying away from more earthy and abrasive expressions will not transform utter absurdities into pearls of wisdom, no matter who is articulating them and no matter how glittering the setting in which they do so.
So no matter how prominent and preeminent the participants at the Saban Forum were, what took place in Washington was, well… wacko.
Resuscitating zombies?
Arguably, by far the wackiest performance at this upmarket theater of the absurd was that of Secretary of State John Kerry, who omitted no opportunity to harness any bit of hogwash, no matter how hackneyed, in an endeavor to convince his audience that they should learn nothing from previous events.
Impervious to past failures, unmindful of present realities, and unmoved by future probabilities, he sallied forth, seemingly oblivious to – or purposefully ignoring – the policy train-wrecks that litter the Mideastern political landscape, prescribing that the same wildly improbable ideas that proved disastrous before be adopted again – under even more improbable conditions.
Regurgitating moronic – indeed oxymoronic – mantras, he advocates the patently preposterous precept that the key to regional tranquility and development is Israeli withdrawal to indefensible borders which, in his mind, will somehow miraculously make Israel “more secure.”
Listening to Kerry, it is difficult to avoid the eerie sensation of someone trying to breathe life into what was presumed long-dead – in the macabre belief that resurrected zombies can accomplish what their living predecessors failed to do.
Bordering on delirium?
In an exhortation bordering on delirium, he urged his audience: “Just think of how much more secure Israel would be if it were integrated into a regional security architecture and surrounded by newfound partners.” A regional security architecture? Really?
Could it be that the US secretary of state has been trapped in an Oslo-era time-warp? Has he been too busy to catch up on the news in recent years as to regional realities?
With turmoil in Egypt, carnage in Syria, brewing instability in Jordan, burgeoning terror in Iraq (to name but a few of the centers of tumult in Israel’s neighborhood), one can only puzzle over what “region” Kerry had in mind when envisioning his “security architecture”; and what “newfound partners” he thinks Israel might surround itself with to comprise the building blocks of his imagined edifice.
In a futile attempt to bend recalcitrant reality to futile fancy, he exhorted his audience to adopt wishful thinking as grand strategy, appealing: “I believe that if you indeed care about Israel, and everybody here does, if you care about its security, if you care about its future… we need to believe that peace is possible.”
See what I mean by desperate?
More than two decades after Oslo – after all the assumptions on which that ill-conceived and ill-considered process was based have been dramatically and definitively disproven – what might have been excused as exuberant naiveté can only be explained by moronic myopia or malevolent intent.
The return of the New Middle East?
When it comes to the Mideast, bad ideas never die, no matter how implausible, improbable or impractical.
So long as they are compliant with precepts of political correctness, they are resurrected time and time again, in the forlorn hope that what failed before will later succeed – see “Zombies” above.
This certainly seems the case with the failed notion of a “New Middle East,” originally posited by Shimon Peres in wake of the post-Oslowian euphoria.
In broad brush strokes, it envisaged that a peace pact with Palestinians would provide the impetus for the establishment of an EU-like reality across the Mideast and North Africa, from Casablanca to Kuwait. It of course was shattered on the rocky regional realities and for years was considered a risible casualty of history, consigned to well-deserved obscurity in dusty archives.
But judging from the introductory excerpt from Kerry’s Saban Forum address, it has taken on a new lease on life. If only Israel would expose its coastal metropolis, its only international airport, its major seaports, its vital infrastructures (power, water and land transport systems), 80 percent of its civilian population and 80% of its commercial activity to the very weapons being used against it today, from territory handed over to Palestinian control in the past, then, miraculously, peace, prosperity and progress would suddenly blossom.
As implausible as this idea was in the dizzying days of the ‘90s, when there was a semblance of regional stability and a sense of US credibility and influence, today in the tectonic post-“Arab Spring” upheavals and accelerating erosion of America’s standing, any such notion is so detached from reality as to be borderline deranged.
It is difficult to know what would be more disconcerting, that the secretary of state of the United States believes the tripe he is disseminating, or he doesn’t, and is disseminating it anyway.
Invoking the wrong models
I could, of course, continue to dwell on the myriad ludicrous flaws, and glaring non sequiturs that pervade Kerry’s address, but his was not the only example of the wildly implausible that surfaced during the weekend Washington deliberations. The ideas conveyed by his boss, Barack Obama, during his interview by Forum’s sponsor, Haim Saban, made no more sense.
In response to Saban’s eminently cogent question as to what the value of a settlement with Mahmoud Abbas would be if Gaza, in which Abbas exerts no control, is not included.
Obama’s response: “If there is a model… even if initially it’s restricted to the West Bank… where young Palestinians in Gaza are looking and seeing that in the West Bank Palestinians are able to live in dignity, with self-determination, and suddenly their economy is booming and trade is taking place because they have created an environment in which Israel is confident about its security and a lot of the old barriers to commerce and educational exchange and all that has begun to break down, that’s something that the young people of Gaza are going to want.”
There are of course many criticisms that could be leveled at this response, which disregards the sequence of events that led to the present situation and ignores the causal mechanisms that produced the current realities in the “West Bank” and Gaza, but I will limit myself to one.
There is already a model in place for the Palestinians to take note of – but, sadly, it is the opposite of that proposed by Obama.
It is not some future theoretical model that the “West Bank” might one day comprise for the young Palestinians in Gaza. Rather, it is a very real, existing model – that which Gaza represents for the young Palestinians in the “West Bank.” It is a model that vividly illustrates to them what their fate is liable to be if Israel accepts the Obama/Kerry prescription and withdraws its forces.
I bet it is a model that scares the bejeezus out of many of them. Except of course for those who feel that it is a model to be emulated.
Like tossing a coin
Perhaps the most troubling aspects of Obama’s interview was his reference to the Iranian nuclear issue and the agreement recently reached with Tehran, which has drawn sharp criticism from even his closest devotees.
Disingenuously, he remarked, “I want to be very clear there’s nothing in this agreement or document that grants Iran a right to enrich.” But the overwhelming international interpretation – including that of Russia and Iran – is that it does.
This underscores the problematic (read “pernicious”) ambiguity in the newly signed pact and is an ominous harbinger of the difficulties that will be encountered in interpreting whether future Iranian behavior constitutes compliance with, or contravention of, its terms. It is indicative of the hurdles that will have to be overcome in reconstituting a united international front against Tehran, should any suspicion – however well-founded in US eyes– arise that it is in violation of its commitments.
Obama waxed optimistic: “It is my strong belief that we can envision a[n] end-state that gives us an assurance that even if they have some modest enrichment capability, it is so constrained and the inspections are so intrusive that they, as a practical matter, do not have breakout capacity…” But he then admits: “If you asked me what is the likelihood that we’re able to arrive at the end-state that I was just describing earlier, I wouldn’t say that it’s more than 50/50.”
So there you have it. On arguably the most crucial foreign policy issue for his country – and undoubtedly one of existential importance for Israel – the US president is blithely prepared to embark on a course that has at least a 50% chance of failure. Like betting on the toss of a coin. Can Washington get any more wacko than that?
Blueprint for a horrific future
There is much that has been left unsaid about the disastrous direction in which US foreign policy is headed. But even from the abbreviated critique that has been laid out above, one thing clearly emerges.
The agenda being aggressively advanced by Obama and Kerry is founded on myth and/or malice.
It is prolonging the conflict by propagating and perpetuating pernicious fictions and falsehoods.
History will prove it to be a blueprint for a horrific future – for Jews and Muslims alike.
yamit82 Said:
He must have been out of his mind. I think any Cia or military working with Obamma’s govt and Kerry’s Sate dept is taking terrible risks. They are not honerable men.
Gross,I beieve, was delivering medical relif supplies to the Jewish community in Cuba.
@ jerrylaury:
He was thrown under the bus by the Americans and probably because he was a Jew and not the only one. No Jew should either trust the American government or congress nor work for any of it’s security agencies.
Outrage! Iran Imprisons Three Americans while US released Iranian Nuclear Scientist and Others
‘US freed top Iranian scientist as part of secret talks ahead of Geneva deal’
Mojtaba Atarodi, arrested in California for attempting to acquire equipment for Iran’s military-nuclear programs, was released in April as part of back channel talks, Times of Israel told. The contacts, mediated in Oman for years by close colleague of the Sultan, have seen a series of US-Iran prisoner releases, and there may be more to come
yamit82 Said:
Whenever a spy is picked up he’s on an unapproved mission.Apparently the CIA never approves anything their people do. I guess that would include gun running, narcotics trafficking and offing offending people.
@ yamit82:
I do what I can!!! A kiss on the cheek, in gratitude, would be nice!
honeybee Said:
You are right, I FORGOT ABOUT HIM.
yamit82 Said:
And Gross, held prisoner in Cuba!!!!!!!!!!
Kerry: US did not abandon Jewish ex-FBI man missing in Iran
Robert Levinson was in country on unapproved CIA mission, AP reported; US government had maintained he was on private business trip
Another Pollard??
Abbas: Don’t boycott Israel
Infuriating activists, PA president tells reporters in South Africa he backs boycott of settlements but not of Israel, with whom ‘we have relations’
Congress triples Obama’s request on defense cooperation with Israel
Jointly funded programs, which include Israel’s advanced missile defense systems, receive budget boost
The $284 million in the budget released jointly December 10 by the US House of Representatives and Senate budget committees – up from $96 million requested by the Obama administration – includes funding for the Arrow long-range anti-missile system and the David’s Sling and Iron Dome missile defense systems.
The full National Defense Authorization Act for 2014 is virtually assured passage.
Defense cooperation funding – to which Israel contributes – is separate from the $3.1 billion Israel receives in defense assistance as part of a ten-year package.
Iran pushes for Saudi isolation in the Gulf amid military buildup in Hormuz
http://www.debka.com/article/23514/Iran-pushes-for-Saudi-isolation-in-the-Gulf-amid-military-buildup-in-Hormuz
No US, EU objections to Iran holding nuclear-capable missiles able to reach Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey
http://www.debka.com/article/23524/No-US-EU-objections-to-Iran-holding-nuclear-capable-missiles-able-to-reach-Israel-Saudi-Arabia-and-Turkey-
US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the provisions for Israel’s security in the future Palestinian state with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in Jerusalem Friday, Dec. 13, just two days after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Maj. Gen, Mohammad Ali Jafari laid bare an issue embodied in the Nov. 24 Geneva accord.which is of high relevance to Israel’s security.
After a lecture captioned “Islamic Revolution against Global Arrogance,” which he delivered at the Imam Sadegh University in Tehran Wednesday, Dec. 11, a student asked the Revolutionary Guards commander whether any of the Western powers in Geneva had asked for Iran’s missiles to be reduced.
“We will never do this,” he replied.
Asked by another student to clarify his statement that Iranian missiles can reach Israel, Jafari replied: “We are still increasing the range of our missiles, but currently the Supreme Leader has commanded that we limit the range of our missiles to 2,000 km.”
The general therefore released to the public four facts already known to Israeli, Saudi and Turkish leaders,say debkafile’s military sources:
1. The American and European negotiators in Geneva asked to discuss the ranges of Iranian ballistic missiles with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, without citing the types capable of delivering nuclear warheads. Zarif refused to discuss this.
2. The Western delegations persevered, stressing that the US and Europe were concerned over the accelerated co-production by Iran and North Korea of the Shehab-6, which has a range of 3,000-5,600 km, and when operational can reach America and most parts of Europe.
3. The US and European delegates gave the Iranians to understand that they would like to extend the six-month nuclear freeze agreed in Geneva (for which no starting date has yet been set) to the apply to extra range being added to Iran’s ballistic missiles.
There was no objection, they said, to Iran retaining the Shehab missiles with a range of 1,500-2,000 km, which would be capable of striking Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. They were only concerned about extending their range to cover America or Europe.
4. Jaafari’s remarks to students’ questions, which were most probably planted beforehand, lifted a corner of the veil concealing from the public the secret provisions of the deal with Iran on its missile arsenal. According to debkafile’s Middle East sources, officials in authority in Ankara, Riyadh and Jerusalem knew all about it.
Laura Said:
A better word to describe Kerry would be insane. This is the word to describe people who are completely out of touch with reality. I think “insane schmuck ” would be more appropriate.
Laura Said:
Worse I believe he might still harbor presidential ambitions and that makes him not just a schmuck but a very dangerous one.
Kerry is a big schmuck.
BRAVO Martin Sherman! Never in the annals of world journalism have more appropriate words been used to depict the insane policies of the present Obama administration
Obama said, “It is my strong belief that we can envision a[n] end-state that gives us an assurance that…[they] do not have breakout capacity”
The use of words, to most people, defines reality when most of the time words do not even approximate reality. There is no such thing as an “end-state!” If a system is “open” nothing stops changing – ever. In arithmetic there can be an “end-state” called an “answer.” An “end-state” when describing human interactions, then, is a coaxing, convincing, or marketing ploy. It has nothing to do with reality, because once the “end-state” is reached, there is always tomorrow or there is a change of circumstances or someone with an active imagination sees that a slight change in the “end-state” can be more favorable to them. Therefore, “…We can envision an end state….”is like “you can keep your doctor.”