General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Kerry gives Netanyahu a well-deserved diplomatic slap in the face [View all]karynnj
(59,508 posts)Saying that the Likud position is wrong does not mean that one agrees with the worst of the Palestinians.
The majority position (as much as 80% in the only poll I know of) is for a two state solution - the very position that Kerry and Obama are working toward. J Street has substantial Jewish support and they support the effort being made.
There are other articles where Kerry's words are simply quoted - without the editorializing here. They were strong - and they needed to be. The day before - while Kerry sat next to him - Netanyahu tried to move the goal posts and to blame the Palestinians in advance for the failure of negotiations. He LIED that the Palestinians had agreed to the continued building of settlements. Kerry, as the lead mediator in a sense, had the responsibility to state that it was not true - and he did.
Kerry is speaking from his heart here when he speaks of the consequences of not having a peace settlements. If you think he went too far, do you know that a deputy Defense Minister complained that we should be speaking of Palestinian enclaves in Israel instead of Jewish settlements in the West Bank - essentially annexing the West Bank as part of Israel?
Many people have said that Israel must choose two out of the three things it is said to be - a Jewish state, controlling all the land, and democratic. It looks like some in the Likud wing are playing with ideas that threaten the last - rather than ceding the middle. At this point it is already hard to not see similarities between appartheid and Israel.