Diplomacy

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House Democratic Whip Criticizes Kerry Ahead of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Speech

by TheTower.org Staff |

In a surprising rebuke, the House of Representatives’ second-leading Democrat publicly and preemptively criticized Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, stating that Kerry’s scheduled speech on Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations should not break with the longstanding U.S. policy that terms for an agreement can only come through bilateral negotiations.

The statement by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D – Md.) warned Kerry that laying out parameters for an acceptable deal “flies in the face of the United States’s longstanding position that such a formulation should be reached only through negotiations by the parties and not by the United States, the United Nations, or any other third party.” Doing this, he added, would “inevitably disadvantage Israel in any negotiation.”

Hoyer called on the United States to “take steps to signal unequivocally to the entire world that we will continue to stand by our ally Israel as it seeks to build a future of peace and safety as a Jewish state and an equal member of the family of nations.”

He also criticized the Obama administration for failing to veto an anti-Israel United Nations Security Council resolution on Friday, saying that because of the vote, “Israel’s enemies were strengthened.”

Hoyer harshly criticized the resolution before and after it was passed, as did many other top Democratic leaders. “Anyone who cares about the future of Israel and peace in the region knows that the U.N., with its one-sidedness, is exactly the wrong forum to bring about peace,” incoming Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) said before the vote. After the resolution was passed, Schumer tweeted that it was “Extremely frustrating, disappointing & confounding that the Administration has failed to veto the UN resolution.”

On Tuesday, Israel’s Channel 1 News reported that Egypt had released transcripts showing that top Obama administration officials had colluded with the Palestinian Authority to push the resolution through the Security Council.

[Photo: US Department of Labor / WikiCommons ]

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