{Cross-posted at Jews Down Under.}
I voted for John Kerry for president of the United States in 2004.Of course, I also voted for Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, and the current resident of Pennsylvania Avenue.
In the past Kerry has suggested that unless Israel does what he wants - which apparently is to stop the building of second bathrooms in Jewish homes in the eastern section of Jerusalem - then the country will likely face delegitimization and BDS "on steroids."
We were to understand that this did not represent a threat, but merely a description of what Israel would likely face if it did not heed Kerry's warnings.
Many people took it as a veiled threat because it screams out like a veiled threat and acts as a green light for the BDS movement within the European Union and American college campuses. If it was not a veiled threat then it clearly represents diplomatic stupidity. We cannot read John Kerry's mind. We do not know what he was thinking when he said what he said. All we know is that he said it. Now, if he said it with the intention to threaten then he said it with the intention to threaten. If he did not say it with the intention to threaten, then just why did he say it?
Are we supposed to believe that the current Secretary of State of the United States is just dumb?
I find that rather hard to imagine.
And now we have Kerry's "apartheid" hoopla.
Elior Levy and Yitzhak Benhorin write in Y-Net:
After a day of outraged responses, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that he had chosen the wrong word when describing Israel's potential future as an "apartheid state" if it didn't reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.He thinks that his words could have been "misinterpreted"?
In a statement released by the State Department, Kerry lashed out against "partisan political" attacks against him, but acknowledged his comments last week to a closed international forum could have been misinterpreted.
What part of the word "apartheid" are we supposed to misunderstand, I wonder?
In any case, Kerry has yet again busted out with a veiled threat.
By suggesting that Israel will become an "apartheid" state unless it acquiesces to an American diktat, he essentially threatened that, like apartheid South Africa, Israel will be dismantled by the world community.
The Obama administration wants us to think that Kerry has foot-in-mouth disease.
I am not so sure.
