Following up on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent views, the PLO on Saturday called for a comprehensive strategy against Islamic extremism that would coincide with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, AFP reported.
Returning from his most recent Middle East visit, Kerry managed yet again to infuriate Israelis last Thursday when he said the conflict was fueling recruitment for the Islamic State group.
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“There wasn’t a leader I met … who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation, ” Kerry said.
Of course, Israel has been cited by these Arab leaders as the cause for all the woes of the Middle East since around 1948, but Kerry was apparently not so keenly aware of it.
So now PLO Secretary General Yasser Abed Rabbo told AFP that “linking the fight against terrorism and the end of the Israeli occupation is a strategic position that we support.”
The PLO is “ready to work hard with the American administration and all regional leaders to develop mechanisms to implement different levels of the strategic direction announced by Kerry, ” he said, without elaborating.
What’s there to elaborate? The direction is Israel gives up land, a Palestinian state is established, to be immediately followed by an everlasting peace.
Last week, Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said that “even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian there will always be someone who blames the Jews.”
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf insisted that Kerry “did not make any linkage between Israel and the growth of ISIL, period.”
“If we could achieve peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, that would create a more stable region writ large, ” she said Friday.
That, too, may deem further discussion – how would the ISIL folks know it’s time to rape and behead Arabs all over Iraq and Syria, since the Palestinians and the Israelis are living in peace now? Do they see the obvious link there?
Abed Rabbo said “those who criticize Kerry want the terrorism of the Islamic State organization to continue to use it as an excuse to obstruct a political solution and end to the occupation.”
See what he did there? You either support what Kerry wants, or you’re a Kerryphobe…
“We hope that these balanced American statements will reflect on the Palestinian resolution in the (UN) Security Council that will be proposed in the coming days” to call for the end of Israel’s occupation.
Probably not. There will be a U.S. veto.
