Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America(ZOA) released the following statement:
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) strongly condemns Secretary of State John Kerry for claiming that some terrorism against innocent civilians is legitimate and has an understandable rationale. ZOA demands that Kerry retract and apologize for his abhorrent and absurd claim. Yesterday, Kerry described the murders of twelve Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and journalists by radical Islamist terrorists last January as having a “rationale.” Kerry also started out asserting that these murders perhaps, had “legitimacy” before settling on the equally offensive term “rationale.” And in a similar vein a few weeks ago, Kerry outrageously and disgracefully demanded that we should “understand” that, in essence, Israel is to blame for ISIS/ISIL recruitment and for “street anger and agitation” that the terrorists “felt and had to respond to.” ZOA reiterates its previous condemnation of Kerry’s earlier outrageous remarks, while noting that blaming the victims of radical Islamist terrorism has apparently now become a pattern for the Secretary of State.
At the American Embassy in Paris yesterday (November 17), Secretary Kerry stated:
“. . . There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that. There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of – not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, okay, they’re really angry because of this and that. ”
It is shocking and disgraceful that our country’s top diplomat voices any rationale for radical Islamic terrorists to murder innocent people. And, it is mind-boggling that Kerry in essence portrays the bedrock American value of freedom of expression – the right to draw cartoons of Mohammed – as a “particularized grievance” and understandable “rationale” for murder.
On October 16, 2015, Kerry made analogous, utterly disgraceful remarks absolving radical Islam, and in essence blamed Israel for ISIS recruitment, and for creating anger that terrorists “have to” respond to, at a U.S. State Department reception in honor of Eid al-Adha. (Eid al-Adha, “festival of sacrifice,” is a Muslim holiday commemorating what Muslims believe was Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael; according to the Torah and Christian Bible, the son involved was Isaac – not Ishmael.) Kerry also bragged during the same talk about billions raised to rebuild Gaza – while failing to mention that Gaza is run by the terrorist organization, Hamas, which uses “rebuilding” funds to build rockets and terror tunnels to murder innocent Israeli civilians. Kerry stated:
“As I went around and met with people in the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, the truth is we – there wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation that they felt – and I see a lot of heads nodding – they had to respond to. And people need to understand the connection of that. And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity, and Eid celebrates the opposite of all of that.”
Many others have joined with ZOA in condemning Kerry’s disgraceful statements. Newsweek wrote that Kerry’s statements “brought a rain of criticism.” A National Review article by Charles W. Cooke aptly entitled “Kerry is a Disgrace,” described Kerry’s statements rationalizing the terrorist murders of the Charlie Hebdo journalists as “abhorrent,” “despicable,” “a craven ranking of outrages,” and an immoral “blaming the victim” similar to how rape cases used to be treated.
Thomas Lifson’s article in The American Thinker, entitled “John Kerry has Lost ‘Legitimacy’ as Secretary of State,” noted: “By expressing his [Kerry’s] understanding of, if not agreement with, the right of Muslims to murder those who violate their Sharia code while freely expressing themselves in the tradition of the West, Kerry has forfeited his ability to act as defender of American interests on the world stage. He should resign or be fired.”
Regarding Secretary Kerry’s attempt last month to blame Israel for ISIS recruitment, Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett blasted Kerry’s anti-Semitic, encouraging-to-terrorism comments, noting that: “It turns out that even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian, there will always be those who blame the Jews.” Minister Bennett also noted, “Asserting that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reinforces ISIS, gives a boost to global terrorism.” Minister Bennett further explained that there is no justification for terrorism and that Israel is fighting against this phenomenon – words that Secretary Kerry should heed.
Among many other condemnations of Kerry’s remarks, a Front Page Magazine article by Joseph Klein, entited “Kerry Blames Israel For Isis Recruitment: The Secretary Of State’s Anti-Semitic Lies,” asked: “What on earth does ISIS’s systematic massacre of Christians and Yazidis, rapes of women and children, and sexual slavery have to do with Kerry’s failed attempt to continue peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians? Absolutely nothing! But Kerry shamelessly repeated the lie anyway. As one Israeli commentator observed a few days after Kerry told the Muslims in his audience what they wanted to hear, “Kerry didn’t mention that the astounding Saudi and Qatari assets invested in mosques around the world, including Europe, leads to radicalization. He didn’t come out against Qatar, which has become the primary funder of jihadi organizations. He doesn’t blame the institutionalized anti-Semitic incitement, which is growing in the Muslim world, including by Al-Jazeera.”