Remember that unhappy picture of his meeting with Kerry that Netanyahu tweeted a month ago? 
Well things got a lot better today.
You’d be smiling too if Benjamin Netanyahu was that close to the red telephone. Isn’t that the essence of the Obama foreign policy? Why we’ll say anything to please him?
Netanyahu is happy because he was right back on the Iran threat rhetoric:
First and foremost, we discussed the danger to the world posed by Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability
And because Kerry repeatedly echoed concerns about Israel’s security. The secretary of state said hardly a word about a Palestinian state, but repeated Obama’s demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state:
And I join with President Obama in expressing to the people of Israel our deep, deep commitment to the security of Israel and to the need to find a peace that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, recognizes Israel as a country that can defend itself, by itself, and that is an important principle with which the Prime Minister and the President and I are in agreement.
Much of our discussion in the very beginning obviously focused on where we are with respect to Iran. I can’t emphasize enough that Israel’s security in this negotiation is at the top of our agenda and the United States will do everything in our power to make certain that Iran’s nuclear program, a program of weaponization possibilities, is terminated…
Security was foremost in Kerry’s treatment of the Palestinian talks:
Once again, Israel’s security is fundamental to these negotiations..
Kerry repeatedly described the negotiations as complicated, and brushed off disagreements:
while occasionally we might have a difference of a tactical measure, we do not have a difference about the fundamental strategy that we both seek with respect with the security of Israel and the long-term peace of this region.
Course the negotiations are complicated. gotta hold the EU at bay, and defuse BDS, and generally make the world “safe for Israel”. The idea of justice or security for Palestine doesn’t arise. (Those are not complicated ideas.)
Funny that they smiled at each other and talked about Iran. Yesterday’s press buzz was that Kerry was going to present a US draft proposal for Israeli security arrangements in the West Bank which was aimed at reviving the talks that both sides publicly agree are going nowhere. Most of what Israel sees as security arrangements, the Palestinians correctly see as limiting their sovereignty.
The U.S. plan is a result of ongoing meetings between U.S. and Israeli officials. They were led by retired General John Allen who is with Kerry today. The Palestinians were made aware of these talks but did not participate. Allen is supposedly presenting the American ideas to both sides today.
Ma’ariv said yesterday that Kerry’s visit would be “decisive” in determining if the talks would continue. Ha’aretz stated the the visit was to “shake up” the two leaders and demand that they return to serious negotiations. The only mention of Iran was that Ha’aretz said that Netanyahu would try to divert the meeting to the nuclear talks. Maybe he has succeeded, at least for public consumption.
Recognition of Israel as Jewish State
Re: John Kerry : ….our deep, deep commitment to the security of Israel and to the need to find a peace that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, …and that is an important principle with which the Prime Minister and the President and I are in agreement…
Such a statement by the USA is indeed highly deplorable, indicating that the USA echoes the Netanyahoo newly introduced condition, which is – as we all know – a perfect Killer Condition.
I wonder why Kerry still travels thousands of miles backwards-forwards under the signum of I-P-“peace” talkings.
According to Ma’ariv, Kerry’s security plan does not include IDF soldiers in the Jordan Valley. It is not clear if the plan suggests an international force there. Israel claims it will not accept this and insists on an IDF presence. Ma’ariv claims that Jordanian officials agree that the Israeli military should remain in the Jordan Valley and are pressuring the Americans on this score. I have no idea whether Jordan wants the IDF on the border, but even if it does I am sure that they are not happy to learn that this has been made public. I expect a Jordanian denial with the next hour.
>> And I join with President Obama in expressing to the people of Israel our deep, deep commitment to the security of Israel and to the need to find a peace that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state …
Israel has no right to exist as a supremacist “Jewish State”. What Obama and Kerry should be committed to, at a minimum, is:
– ending and reversing Israel’s occupation and colonization of land outside of its / Partition borders;
– holding Jews and non-Jews involved in the I-P conflict accountable for their (war) crimes;
– ensuring that Israel honours its commitments under international law;
– assisting in the establishment of a secular, democratic and egalitarian Palestinian state – a state of and for all Palestinians, equally; and
– assisting in the reform of Israel from an oppressive and supremacist “Jewish State” into a secular, democratic and egalitarian Israeli state – a state of and for all Israelis, equally.