Kerry’s speech is not silly

Written by Nasser Kandil,

There are two rages that faced the political document which made by the US Secretary of State John Kerry about the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian- Israeli settlement from the platform of his ministry before three weeks of its departure. The first rage is Israeli that affects the essence of Kerry’s position, by continuing what preceded it from refraining from using veto to disable the resolution of the Security Council which condemns the settlement, and which Kerry’s document says today as the way of putting the project under voting that the voting which was withdrawn by Egypt has been adopted under the US satisfaction by other countries that are friends to America. The second is Arab and Palestinian rage that stems from the timing of the speech, it expresses a deep understanding of the crisis which is experienced by the projects of settlement and their stumbling negotiations, moreover it indicates to the possession of possible real exits for them. The anger here is due to the secrecy and the working reversely for many years then releasing it all at once at a time that makes it lose its value, so there was nothing left to interpret it practically, since the new administration is running against the aspirations expressed publicly by the document.

There are two certain things first, Kerry’s speech is not personal, since no minister who has as the status and the position of Kerry can use the platform of his critical ministry to say personal speech especially that is related to Israel. Any way the voting in the Security Council says the opposite; there is no interest for any minister who will leave the office after days to make animosities due to policies that he is no longer able to defend them. So how if it is related to Israel and in America? And that surely the anger of Israel will lead to a risk. The second thing is that it is not enough to believe that Kerry’s speech is an expression of the position of Obama’s administration, the question remains why would Obama run a risk for having an enmity of Israel, if the forthcoming administration will terminate the tracks drawn by these positions and will follow reverse policies, and thus what will remain is the embarrassment of the advocator of that position?

It is enough to return to the nearby memory of the scene of the Middle East which has included Israel and America with Turkey and Saudi Arabia for waging their fiercest wars to uproot the Syrian country, to dismantle it and to reform it, as well as to share the spoils of having dominance on it. And thus Kerry’s concealment of what he knows for six years, which is the age of war, It was when Hillary Clinton was the US Secretary of State, she has talked in March 2010 before the AIPAC the Zionist Organization about the dark future that is awaiting Israel unless it has a dramatic option to make peace. By returning to the scene, to Clinton’s speech, and to Kerry’s speech there is one common thing; it is the failure in the war of Syria which all the parties were so generous to achieve their goal in it, and to overcome the risks of Clinton’s recipe through a similar document that is prepared by the US Diplomatic circles at that day, and which was expressed by an entrusted friend to Israel who is Clinton, she said with sorrow that the Jewish state and the Democratic state which Kerry has said that it is impossible to combine between them will fall together, unless Israel accelerates for an urgent peace that pleases the Palestinians and the Arabs, so he calls Israel to choose.

With the fall of the choice of the war on Syria due to the fierce confrontation waged by Syria and its allies, the situation returns to what it was before, and because the only alternative to impose the US Israeli will in cooperation with Turkey and Saudi Arabia has failed, there was a seek for possible settlements for two years. The understanding on the Iranian nuclear program was its most important outcome, then it was followed by the US Russian understanding on Syria, so was it possible without Middle East background where there was a US seek to protect Israel from the danger of forthcoming war, unless it was preceded by possible settlement that was accepted by Moscow, and on its basis it was ensured guarantees for not igniting a war, which America and Israel know that it will put an end to the presence of Israel. Is it possible to see the speech of Kerry other than presenting the deposits of the understanding with Moscow by the US diplomacy, and putting them in circulation according to what was agreed, just from the position of the US responsibility and interest not from the luxury of being distinguished by a minister who is leaving his office.

With the returning to the old memory, we find Baker-Hamilton recommendations exactly ten years ago, where there were US strategies that now emerging to light  respectively, since the failure of the recipe of the war on Syria as an alternative of these recommendations. In these recommendations there is a call for an understanding with Russia, a call to recognize Iran as a nuclear power and a capable active regional country, and a call to engage with Syria in understandings on the conflict with Israel and on Lebanon, but most importantly is a call for solving the Palestinian Cause according to dismantling the two countries, to exert pressure on Israel which failed in waging winning wars especially its war in 2006 against Hezbollah in order to withdraw from the occupied territories since 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian country, and an acceptable solution for Jerusalem and the refugees according to the International Resolutions as well as the withdrawal from Golan Heights and the Lebanese Shebaa Farms. Now the recommendations of the Republic Baker and the Democratic Hamilton along with senior officers from the two parties are announced by Kerry.

Kerry sets the subsequent title of the negotiation, which the elected President Donald Trump will find his behavior toward Moscow as he wishes, it is impossible without a common vision about the Middle East. Washington neither has the opportunities for adjusting the balance which controls it toward Iran, nor has the opportunity of protecting the Israeli boastings with similar American boastings that lack the balances of power. When the matters lead to a military explosion either sudden or well considered about a settlement of the Palestinian Cause with the recovery of Syria and the growing power of Iran and Hezbollah, then the fate of Israel becomes under discussion. Moscow will not have the opportunity of intervening or giving guarantees for the security of Israel only if Trump sticks to it and takes it to where Kerry said.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,