“ZE’EV ELKIN, Israel’s 43-year-old deputy foreign minister, who emigrated from eastern Ukraine in 1990, chuckles about the rise of “Russians” into his country’s highest posts. The foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, hails from Moldova, once part of the Soviet Union. “Recently the ministers of tourism, absorption, diaspora affairs, the head of the Jewish agency—they’ve all been Russians,” jokes Mr Elkin. Most Russian-Israelis, he notes approvingly, are “right-wing”, meaning that they are hawks on Palestine. Mr Elkin openly opposes—under any circumstance, he breezily asserts—the stated desire of his prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for a Palestinian state to co-exist alongside Israel, something John Kerry, America’s secretary of state, is failing to achieve after nearly eight months of frenetic diplomacy. A Palestinian one, however hedged about, would, says Mr Elkin, “threaten the existence of a Jewish state.” Better, he adds, to annex a chunk of the West Bank……………”
Secretary Kerry does not show much of a sense of humor in public; he has not shown much since Vietnam, at least not publicly. He may be about to lose whatever private humor he has left. Dealing with what are probably two of the surliest peoples in the whole surly Middle East. That would be Israelis (both of the more recent grim Russian disposition and the earlier version) and Palestinians. Yet, as I said, there is nothing new here.
Early in 2013, I posted about the impossible task facing Secretary Kerry. I titled the post Man of La Mancha: the Impossible Dream of John Kerry. I opined that the mission will fail, just like others before it failed.
My prognosis has always been for failure of these peace talks, under Bush and under Obama, under Hillary Clinton and under Kerry. Mr. Kerry cannot be blamed for this. As I posted once, this case has been DOA (from the outset).
mhg