Kerry to skip Israel on first Middle East trip

Mike L. 

New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to depart on Sunday for nine-nation trip through Europe and the Middle East • Despite not coming to Israel this time, Kerry will take part in U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to the country next month.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will bypass Israel on his first official trip to the Middle East, U.S. officials said Tuesday as they announced a jam-packed itinerary through nine nations, including several in Europe.

Kerry's maiden voyage begins Sunday. He will visit close U.S. allies and partners in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Kerry's trip will focus on the conflicts in Mali, Syria and Afghanistan, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Nuland said the U.S. was waiting for Israeli political parties to form a new government after the recent Knesset election.

"The Israelis are still working on their coalition," she told reporters, adding that Kerry won't travel to Israel or the Palestinian territories until next month — when he will accompany President Barack Obama to the region.

Until we have a new administration it's best that Kerry and Obama and Hagel stay away from Israel.

These people cannot do any good because they simply do not understand Jewish history in the region and have no honest sympathies for those of us who live there.

They still believe that the reason that so many Arabs want to kill Jews is because the tiny Jewish minority are mean to the overwhelming Arab majority.  This is what "progressives," including "progressive Zionists," tend to believe.

The best that we can hope for is that Barack Obama will not cause even further damage than what he has caused already.  But I would not count on that.

Just as I do not believe that Obama is anti-Semitic, so I do not believe that he intentionally wants to cause additional harm to Israel.  The simple fact of the matter is that Obama is not nearly so bright as they tell us he is and that when it comes to the Middle East the man is absolutely clueless.

That much is simply undeniable and what is also undeniable is that Obama is no friend of either the Jewish people or the Jewish state.

Any American president who thinks that Muhammed Morsi is something akin to Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr. needs to have his head examined.  The man is simply not competent to broker any meaningful peace because he is ignorant, highly ideological, and out of sympathy with the Jewish people in that part of the world.