Dear Secretary of State John Kerry,
I’ve lost count of the times you’ve visited Israel recently to promote peace, or peace negotiations, or a framework agreement or whatever. The United States, with President Obama pushing hard, is really fouling this up.
I know you don’t have a lot of time to deliberate and deep-think this matter, so I’ll keep this short.
Consider this news:
Al-Qaeda militants in key western Iraqi cities launched a series of brazen attacks against police stations and fought battles with government forces Thursday amid growing sectarian tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. Al-Qaeda militants, emboldened by their powerful role in attempting to topple the government in neighboring Syria, have been exploiting a sense of alienation among many minority Sunnis in Iraq. "It''s a perfect storm that''s been brewing for a long time," said Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
Yes, Syria is marching into Iraq!
And the reverse:
The State Department confirmed Tuesday that terrorists from al Qaeda''s affiliate in Iraq have migrated into neighboring Syria to fight amid the ongoing unrest between President Bashar Assad and the opposition. "Terrorists gravitate toward areas of instability and civil strife," Ambassador-at-large Daniel Benjamin told reporters during an afternoon news conference in Washington.
A bit confusing. Illogical. Nonsensical. And very dangerous.
The US couldn’t assure the future of Iraq where it actually fought a war. It hasn’t solved the Syrian imbroglio. Egypt you’ve pissed off. Hezbollah is moving long-range missiles into Lebanon – and even you know that Israel is the target. The Palestinian Authority President – and we’ll ignore is not being re-elected for years – thinks Jesus was a Palestinian and really gets ecstatic about terrorists (“Today is a day of joy for our people, our families and our prisoner heroes”), besides paying them. And you know he won''t permit Jews to live in his "Palestine", and yet he wants Arabs in Israel to be an ethnic autonomy and more, he wants a full ''right of return'' for the refugees (what about the Jewish refugees?).
Do you really believe that Israel yielding up it security – and that is what you are asking, pious words aside – will bring peace? Do you think a weakened Israel will not lead to a local destabilization, worse that what is happening all over, from Iraq to Egypt and beyond? If you can''t protect the Sunnis from the Shiites or whatever other Islamic sect is in trouble, and you surely haven''t saved the Christians of the Middle East, how can the US protect the Jews? And what about Iran?
Even releasing Pollard (unless done with no strings attached) won’t convince the Israeli public that our best interests are in your heart. But more importantly, US failures don''t portent well for us here in Israel.
Maybe reconsider the whole exercise?
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