Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech today essentially was a proposal for a Hamas-Fatah-PLO-PLFP-Iranian-Palestinian-Arab terrorist state, which divides Jerusalem in two, evicts Jews from their homeland, and requires Israel’s retreat to indefensible borders (and subjects Israel’s borders to the “agreement” of terrorists who seek to destroy the Jewish state).   Neither the U.S. nor Israel nor any of our allies would benefit from establishing another Iranian or Iraqi or Syrian-style state in the Middle East – and that is exactly what Kerry’s proposal entails.  Kerry’s proposal endangers Israel’s safety and security – and would reward the Palestinian Authority (“PA”)/PLO for promoting the murder of Jews, and honoring murderers of Jews, and paying pensions to families of murderers of Jews.

Kerry also called for easing the Gaza weapons blockade, which he called “restrictions” on Gaza.  This would enable Hamas to bring in more military equipment, further gravely endangering Israel’s citizens. 

In the course of his speech, Kerry repeatedly ignored or twisted reality and/or blatantly lied.  

Although Kery threw Israel a few “bones” – such as speaking about the PA’s incitement of terrorism and naming of public squares after terrorists, Kerry engaged in the false “moral equivalence” of equating Jews living in their homes to the PA’s promotion of terrorism and murder.  And Kerry’s vitriol was mainly reserved for Israelis who dare to live in their own millennia-old homeland in Judea/Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. 

Kerry ignored that the PA/PLO rejected offers of statehood in 2001 in 2008 and refused to negotiate with Israel for the past seven years, proving that, as far as the PA/PLO is concerned, the issue is Israel’s existence – and not a Palestinian state or Jews living in their old city in eastern Jerusalem and Judea/Samaria.   Despite Israel’s willingness to negotiate and the Palestinian-Arabs’ refusals, Kerry blamed the Israelis and the Palestinian-Arabs “equally” for the lack of peace.  

Kerry also ignored the diplomatic terrorism carried on by the Hamas-Abbas alliance, which also proves that the Palestinian Authority’s intention is murdering Jews and destroying Israel. 

Kerry also promoted justice for Palestinian-Arab “refugees’ – of which there are only about 30,000 remaining. – but Kerry ignored the almost one million Jewish refugees who were forced out of their homes and businesses in Arab countries when the Arabs invaded the newly-reestablished State of Israel in 1948.  Kerry ignored that UN Resolution 181 also sought justice for the far more numerous Jewish refugees from Arab lands.

Kerry also blatantly lied that the Obama administration has supported Israel regarding Iron dome and BDS (anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions), etc.  In fact, the Obama administration repeatedly attempted to cut funding to Iron Dome.  Congress restored the funding cut by Obama.  The Obama administration invoked anti-Semitic labeling restrictions, and frequently issued statements that (like UNSC Res. 2334) promote BDS.

Kerry also castigated Israel for its security checkpoints – ignoring the fact that the only reason that checkpoints exist is the existence of continual Arab terrorism against innocent Israelis.  If there were no Arab terrorists, there would be no checkpoints.   The U.S. has checkpoints in every airport.   Is that an impediment to peace too?   Or are checkpoints simply a necessity for protecting innocent people?

Kerry also promoted that each side should adopt his proposals “without waiting for the other side.”  Thus, Kerry would have Israel endanger its citizens’ lives by removing checkpoints, without waiting for PA/PLO/Hamas knife and car ramming attacks on innocent Israelis to end.

While Kerry acknowledged that Hamas wants “one (Palestinian Arab) state, Kerry ignored the fact that the PA/PLO/Fatah has repeatedly proven that they also want one Palestinian Arab state that replaces all of Israel.  PA/PLO/Fatah maps, stamps, official emblems and textbooks all show no Israel and a “Palestinian state” that encompasses the entire land of Israel.  The PA/PLO?Fatah repeatedly calls the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 the “first occupation,” and the lands that Israel regained while defending herself in the 1967 war, the “second occupation.”

Much of Kerry’s argument against settlements (which he admitted are only located on a tiny portion of Judea/Samaria) was based on Kerry’s baldly-stated false premise that a Palestinian Arab state must be “contiguous” to be viable.  Kerry ignored the fact there are many countries throughout the world that have non-contiguous enclaves and exclaves, which are perfectly viable (including Russia, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Malawi, India and Bangladesh, to name a few).   

Kerry also ignored that a “contiguous” Palestinian-Arab state would cut Israel in two, resulting in a non-contiguous indefensible Israel. 

Despite admitting that settlements are on only a small percentage of Judea/Samaria, and that most Arabs live in the areas under the PA’s authority, Kerry falsely depicted settlement growth as a problem.   Kerry complained about small numbers of Jewish apartment units moving through Israel’s building permit process.  Yet,  Kerry failed to mention that tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs are building illegally on Jewish land – and that only a very tiny percentage of those structures have been demolished.

 Kerry also falsely acted like UNSC Resolution 2334 passed last week was not of any serious consequence, or any different from prior anti-Israel resolutions.   Kerry ignored that Resolution 2334 declares that the Jewish quarter, Temple Mount, and Western wall are “occupied Arab land,” and makes 700,000 Jews living in the Jewish homeland into pariahs (or even criminals) who are living there illegally.  Prior resolutions calling for a “freeze” of “settlements” did not say that the “settlements” were on Arab land.  And Kerry ignored the fact that the so-called “settlements” are established Jewish communities and towns. 

Resolution 2334 also called for dividing Jerusalem.   And now, in his speech, Kerry publicly proclaimed that he too wants to divide Jerusalem in two. 

Kerry also praised the Arab Peace Initiative (API).  He ignored that the API requires Israel to make every concession first, and then the Arabs will decide whether to have normalized relations with Israel.   The API also calls for millions of alleged descendants of supposed Arab refugees to move into Israel, in addition to having a Palestinian-Arab state. 

In sum, Kerry’s speech tossed a few bones to Israel while again stabbing Israel in the back with a proposal that endangers the Jewish state.