The Wall Street Journal reported today (via Google) that the inability of John Kerry to arrange a ceasefire by engaging Qatar and Turkey despite “Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia caution[ing] Mr. Kerry against relying” on the two allies of Hamas, reveals a rift between the United States and many of its longtime allies.
The inability of the U.S. and others to achieve more from a week of diplomatic effort has exposed the changes sweeping the region, and the divisions that have developed between the U.S. and its Mideast allies, including Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and many leading Arab states.
Avi Issacharoff, of The Times of Israel, attributes Kerry’s ill advised diplomacy to naivete.
Despite the tendency to criticize US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts, credit should be given where credit is due. Over the weekend, Kerry did manage to facilitate something in the Middle East: unparalleled unanimity.
Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were all in agreement that Kerry’s efforts were undermining the attempt to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as quickly as possible. Moreover, Kerry’s framework and the ideas he presented led to an extraordinary phone call taking place between a senior Palestinian Authority official and an Israeli counterpart, during which the two mocked the senior diplomat’s naivete and his failure to understand the regional reality.
Israeli columnist, Ari Shavit, of Ha’aretz describes the dynamic of how Kerry’s diplomacy made matters worse:
Until last weekend, the moderates held the upper hand. They felt the military achievements of Operation Protective Edge were rather good: The Iron Dome system intercepted the rocket attacks on Israel; the air force caused enormous and horrible damage in the Gaza Strip; and the ground forces destroyed 10 out of 12 offensive tunnels that threatened the Israeli communities near Gaza. At the same time, Hamas’ strategic capabilities were eroded somewhat, and the pressure on its leadership grew stronger. With proper management, the military success could have been translated to a certain extent into a significant diplomatic victory: The Egyptian initiative.
But over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ruined everything. Very senior officials in Jerusalem described the proposal that Kerry put on the table as a “strategic terrorist attack.” His decision to go hand in hand with Qatar and Turkey, and formulate a framework amazingly similar to the Hamas framework, was catastrophic. It put wind in the sails of Hamas’ political leader Khaled Meshal, allowed the Hamas extremists to overcome the Hamas moderates, and gave renewed life to the weakened regional alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Kerry’s decision to switch from the Egyptian ceasefire plan to one backed by Qatar and Turkey has been harshly criticized in Israel, as being a plan “might as well have been penned by Khaled Meshal,” the Qatar based Hamas leader. Palestinians faulted Kerry for trying to “destroy” the Egyptian ceasefire plan. His efforts also ran counter to expert advice that he not give Qatar and Turkey, sponsors of Hamas, a diplomatic victory despite their “bad behavior.”
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