Pope Francis on Mid East Peace

While traveling to Manger Square, Pope Francis deviated from his tightly scheduled itinerary, he spontaneously halted the motorcade to pray for several minutes at the wall that divides Israel from the Palestinian territory.

{Pope Francis praying  at the Bethlehem Wall, West Bank}

John Kerry Lurches Forward on the Levant

When speaking in a closed door meeting of the Trilateral Commission, Obama Administration Secretary of State John F. Kerry opined that a two state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian affair was the only alternative to apartheid or annihilation of Israel.  This comes after talks with the Palestinian Authority were broken off by Israel as P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas reconciled with Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the Jewish State.

There are a few remarkable things about Secretary of State Kerry's admission.  It envisages that a one state solution could only be conducted under Palestinian auspices.  Currently, Arabs who live in Israel are first class citizens with full rights.  Muslim lead governments in the Mid-East have dhimmi second class citizens who do not ascribe to Islam but are countenanced by paying a jizha tax.

Secondly, Kerry's choice of words is alarming.   Notwithstanding the validity of Kerry's contention, applying the word apartheid is alarming as it introduces a pejorative phrase to the diplomatic toolbox for Israeli/Palestinian relations.  While apartheid is much more likely on the Palestinian plane, anti-semitic elements are much more likely to cast Israelis as the authors of apartheid.

Thirdly, the Obama Administration's Minister to the world has revealed the meaninglessness of President Obama's promise to Israel "I have Israel's back" when he was out of the campaign hustings in 2012.  To paraphrase another flimsy Obama promise: "If you like your state, then you can keep it."  It's a pity that too many people relied up these sweet sounding cozenings in exchange for their support.

Mahmoud Abbas on the Holocaust

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen released a statement which extended his first official condolences of the Shoah.  Unlike prior Palestinian leaders (namely Yasser Arafat) who would say moderate things in English translation but would be undaunted anti-semitic in the Arabic original, Abbas' statement was released in both English and Arabic.

This statement is in stark contrast to his doctrinal thesis from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow later published as  The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism (1984) in which he claimed: the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed” and claimed that only some 890,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis.  Moreover  these were chiefly the victims of a Zionist-Nazi plot in the Havaara Agrement (1933) to facilitate German emigration to the Palestine Mandate.  Such a theory contributes to the fever swamp frenzy of Holocaust deniers.  Abbas had backtracked from this thesis in 2011 when he asserted that he could accept that six million people were killed during the Holocaust.

Abbas' conciliatory statements are not being welcomed with open arms by the Israeli government.  As Abbas reiterated his Holocaust condolence statement, Abbas' ruling Palestinian Fatah party (which prevails in the West Bank) made a rapprochement with Hamas, the terror organization which is based in the exclave Gaza Strip.  

As Hamas is still dedicated in its charter to the destruction of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet unanimously decided to break off negotiations with a Palestinian government which incorporates Hamas.  In addition, Israel is planning to impose economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority by withholding tax revenue collected by Israel on behalf of the PA.