Of Course! Kerry Blames Israel Alone For The Failed Peace Talks

Yes, in what's now being called his 'poof' speech, our secretary of state went out of his way not to blame Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO's intransigence and refusal to negotiate anything for the failed talks. Of course, it's all Israel's fault!

"Israel didn't release the Palestinian prisoners on the day they were supposed to be freed, and another day passed, and another day, and then another 700 settlement units were announced in Jerusalem, and 'poof'...that was sort of the moment," remarked Kerry before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerry further blamed Israel for demanding recognition as the Jewish state. Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas brought talks to a standstill by adamantly refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish state.

"The government of the United States and the president supports the notion of Israel being defined as a Jewish state," Kerry noted. "We believe that that should happen. But when it happens, and how it happens, has to be part of the negotiations. It's not going to happen in the beginning."

Kerry isn't even a decent liar, although you'd never know it from the usual ObamaMedia suspects.There isn't a single bit of truth in the above paragraphs.

It was Israel who agreed to continue talks under Kerry's non-binding framework, and it was Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians who refused to even consider it.The Israelis only stopped the final release of murderers convicted in Israeli civil courts when it became clear that the talks weren't going anywhere and Mahmoud Abbas refused to commit to extending the talks past the April 29th deadline. Even Saeb Erekat, formerly the right fork of Arafat's tongue and now the chief Palestinian negotiator admitted that Abbas had no intention of negotiating anything and was staying in the talks just to get the terrorists released.

And Kerry knows full well that his team team had cobbled together a proposition that would have allowed the last batch of prisoners to be freed along with 400 others. The Israelis were even willing to consider certain restrictions on building in Judea and Samaria. All Abbas had to do was to agree to extend the deadline for talks to December.

Abbas' response? First he issued an ultimatum, telling Kerry he had 24 hours to get the Palestinian convicts released, or he was going to go to the UN unilaterally for statehood. In the end, Abbas didn't even wait 24 hours. He signed the papers for membership in various UN bodies and related concords live on Palestinian state TV. Not going to the UN was the sole concession Abbas had agreed to be bound by in exchange for all of the prisoner releases, and that agreement wasn't over until April 29th.

As I reported earlier, Kerry had his team lean on the Israelis to attend a final meeting with the Palestinians, a nine hour debacle. Once again, the Palestinians refused to actually negotiate anything,
but instead, they presented a brand new batch of 'pre-conditions to talks' that were essentially a diktat that Israel surrender and agree to all of their demands in advance, something Abbas knew no Israeli government could accept that were deliberately designed to blow up the negotiations.

Not only isn't Abbas going to pay any price for it, but Obama's Israel hating UN Ambassador Samantha Power is testifying in congress as I write this about the need for yet another presidential exemption to our laws so that the PA can get its jirzya as scheduled, courtesy of the American taxpayer.

But wait, there's more. Kerry mentioned the announcement of building homes in a part of Jerusalem that's going to remain part of Israel in any conceivable agreement as part of the reason the talks failed...even though a building freeze was no part of the agreement the Israelis and Palestinians signed when they started the talks. And recognizing Israel as a Jewish State? Even Kerry and President Obama said that was an essential part of any peace agreement - that is, until Mahmoud Abbas came to Washington and met with the president.

Then, Abbas said he would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state, or commit to an agreement that would be a final end to the conflict. The  White House's response to that was to move to the Palestinian position, with our State Department and Kerry doing a 180, declaring that it 'wasn't necessary that both sides recognize Israel as a Jewish State.'

Of course, it wasn't necessary to release a bunch of convicted terrorist murderers with blood on their hands either. But that's you know, different.

Expect the 'blame Israel' meme to continue to be repeated by the White House. It serves three purposes. First, it allows this president to continue to make America's relationship with Israel a partisan issue, something that continues to be aided and abetted by a number of American Jews on the Left. Second, it sets the stage for President Obama's team to set the stage for an American vote for 'Palestine' as a state,  or at best  an abstention. And finally, it's necessary as an attempt to conceal who really destroyed the Israeli-Palestinian talks

President Obama may very well get his wish for that 'daylight' between the U.S. and Israel he wanted so badly  back in 2009. What develops out of that may end up being quite surprising, and not at all what he expects.

When you defecate on a loyal ally so easily, your other allies as well as your enemies take notice.