John Kerry: Israel needs to STOP insisting that Palestinians officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state

I know I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but it really is unbelievable to me that Kerry would suggest that the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is a mistake at this point in the talks and that Israel should stop demanding it. It’s just so ludicrous given the blood-thirsty hatred against them that sits opposite all their borders. Does Kerry understand anything about Islam and their hatred for Israel?

TIMES OF ISRAEL – A new statement by US Secretary of State John Kerry, to the effect that Israel is misguided in insisting that the Palestinians officially recognize it as a Jewish state, indicates that Washington is wary of dealing with Palestinian intransigence and instead chooses to focus on Israel, an Israeli official said Friday.

While there was no official Israeli response to Kerry’s comments, Israel Radio quoted an unidentified political source as saying that it was “easier for the Americans to pressure Israel to give up on the demand for recognition of a Jewish state than to deal with the Palestinians.”

Israel’s insistence that the Palestinians officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state is a mistake, Kerry said Thursday, adding that the issue should not be a critical factor in whether the current round of Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations succeed or fail.

Speaking to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Kerry put the kibosh on the demand, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made central to peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

“I think it’s a mistake for some people to be, you know, raising it again and again as the critical decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we’ve obviously made that clear,” Kerry said.

Kerry noted that the “Jewish state” issue was addressed by UN Resolution 181 in 1947, which granted international recognition to the fledgling state of Israel. There are “more than 40 — 30 mentions of a ‘Jewish state’ ” in the resolution, Kerry said, and added that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat “confirmed that he agreed it [Israel] would be a Jewish state” in 1988 and in 2004.


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