Keep calm and Kerry on
Our sages were perplexed over why God chose to focus on the proper way to cultivate the land when he began revealing the Torah at Mount Sinai. Why couple the famous tablets with agricultural laws? They ultimately found a fitting, albeit complicated, explanation.
Similarly, we must ask ourselves, why people are linking the rise of the Islamic State group in this malignant part of the world with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Do those two have anything in common? No. Absolutely not. That U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has failed to grasp this reality is just mind-boggling.
For al-Qaida, the Taliban, ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood there is no such thing as a two-state solution. This is just a fact. Even if Israel were to agree to each and every one of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' dictates -- from setting a timetable for a total withdrawal and announcing a construction freeze in Jerusalem -- this would have zero impact on the ongoing battle for Kobani, nor would it have changed things in any other hot spot in Syria and Iraq.
Those who toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, killed Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi and beheaded the Christians who have been kidnapped by ISIS have shown zero interest in resolving the complicated situation in Judea and Samaria. They are the product of the rampant deprivation in the region; their actions are fueled by their ongoing persecution (as they see it) and the rise of violent Islamic radicals. This sentiment is shared by newly minted Westerners who have emigrated from the Muslim world.
Islamic sociology bears no relevance to the ongoing conflict here at home. Only Kerry and like-minded individuals -- radical Israeli lefties -- think otherwise. Perhaps the U.S. has failed to appreciate just how much things have changed in this region since President Barack Obama delivered his Cairo address. This lack of understanding was just recently manifested by Kerry's statement, where he cited the lack of progress in the peace talks as an obstacle to the war on ISIS. The American posture can also be explained through naivete. It appears that American policy makers are convinced that any crisis can be solved through good-faith negotiations.
Kerry and others have tried to find explanations for why ISIS has not buckled, but the problem lies in the fact that the U.S. and the other members of the coalition have not exerted the necessary force to counter the radical organization. The U.S. knows full well that diplomacy is not enough when it comes to ISIS, but it keeps explaining away its failure by using the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is like that person who keeps looking for a coin he lost by searching under the lamp post.
Kerry's statement was outrageous, but it must not serve as another election prop in the insipid campaign for the 20th Knesset. Not every Israeli cabinet minister has the right to comment on what Kerry says. Communications Minister Gilad Erdan and Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett do not hold the foreign affairs portfolio. Neither one is defense minister, let alone prime minister. Just like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the ministers and the military's top brass stay silent on Iran -- he may ask them to keep their silence even when Kerry makes them cringe; even when his comments smack of anti-Semitism.
Bennett has once again touched a nerve in this ongoing spat between Jerusalem and Washington. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon have faulted him, justifiably. They believe some things are better left unsaid. Our trusted ally's statements may warrant a response because they were infuriating, but it is Netanyahu who will have to deliver it. When he does, he will make sure not to go overboard.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו