In a Maariv column, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilboa took Kerry to task regarding his warning about a third Palestinian intifada. “He [Kerry] thereby recognizes that violence is an understood part of the DNA of the Palestinians in particular and the Arabs in general. He looks around him and sees violence running amok in almost every part of the Middle East. Kerry accepts this as basic and agrees that whenever the Palestinians do not get what they want, they turn to violence. This is the condescending and racist Western approach that does not at all care when Arabs kill Arabs or when they kill Jews. But woe if a Jew kills an Arab.
“These remarks of Kerry’s only encourage the Palestinians to harden their positions in the negotiations and increase the violence. The impression one gets is that Kerry regards us as children who must be taught what is right for them and what is wrong. The heart of our problem is that we cannot tell him to his face, ‘Go home!’ We are too dependent on the U.S. However, let us not forget that Kerry, as of now, does not represent all of the U.S.”
Recognizing this, Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Naftali Bennett, head of the nationalist Habayit Hayehudi Party and a former U.S. citizen, announced that he is willing to go to the U.S. to lobby members of Congress to increase sanctions on Iran and derail any attempt by the Obama administration to impose a peace deal on Israel.
