Posted on 10/16/2015 11:40:47 AM PDT by Isara
Sen. Ted Cruz wants Secretary of State John Kerry to step down if he does not disavow comments claiming Israelis have some responsibility for the recent rash of violence in their country.
Kerry and his top advisors “have proven themselves utterly unfit for the positions they hold,” the Texas Republican and presidential candidate said in a statement on Thursday evening.
Cruz has previously called for Kerry to resign for prior comments on Israel but now is also warning that his top spokesman John Kirby should prepare to step down as well.
“Mr. Kirby should immediately retract his offensive assertion that Israel is ‘guilty of acts of terror’ or resign,” Cruz said “and Sec. Kerry should immediately disavow these remarks or resign.”
Cruz’s rebuke comes in response to the State Department’s claim this week that Israeli Jewish citizens and leaders bear some responsibility amid an explosive uptick in violence this month.
On Tuesday, Kerry said that the Obama administration condemned “terrorist” stabbings of “innocent Israelis” just as equally as “settler violence” committed by Israelis against Palestinians.
On Wednesday, Kirby called the stabbing of four Arab men by a 17-year-old Israeli in the southern city of Dimona an “act of terrorism.” The stabbing was believed to be a revenge attack following a string of clashes and incidents targeting Israelis.
“I would say certainly individuals on both sides of this divide are — have proven capable of and in our view guilty of acts of terror,” Kirby said.
During the past month, eight Israelis have been killed in attacks across the country, much of them stabbings. Meanwhile, 31 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and stone-throwers, including 14 alleged attackers. The rash of violence has shocked observers and led to fears about a third Intifada, or uprising.
The Obama administration has repeatedly called stabbings of Israeli Jews acts of terror.
Cruz has long been a critic of Kerry and the Obama administration’s position towards Israel.
“The Obama Administration is the most hostile we have seen towards the nation of Israel in our nation’s history,” he said on Thursday. “In the last few days, this obsessive antagonism has been on full display.
“There is no moral equivalence here between the savagery of the Palestinian terrorists and the innocent Israelis they are trying to murder.”
Cruz first called for Kerry to resign last year, after Kerry warned that Israel could turn into an “apartheid state” if it continued on its present course.
Kerry has been unfit for decades.
Maybe he’s right but for the wrong reason. Israelis playing rope a dope when they have every right to be smash mouth.
Cruz is wrong.
Kerry had no right to be SOS 40 years ago and that never changed.
he is either naive, or a traitor.
Cruz should ride this issue with spurs. ATTACK this lame duck, lame brain, transnational sell out administration. Go for the jugular and don’t hold back. If he is going to remain in this race he needs to start taking some scalps, and these beg to be taken.
“Israelis playing rope a dope when they have every right to be smash mouth.”
They are in a really tough position. Anything they do to defend themselves will be blown out of proportion; magnified all out of reason. They also have their own vocal and self-destructive liberals. Their stock of these elites (many of whom have double citizenship and homes in other countries) is much higher than ours. Any Israeli government is fragile because of the governing majority rules and the ability to challenge them and throw them out with each new bit of off-balance news. So any government is only hours away from failure. The best way to play the game is probably the way they are doing it. Any other play may cause the government to fall.
Alas, rope a dope might BE the only way to keep a lasting balance, as painful as it is.
It just seems a dirty rotten shame.
Wow your all in for Trump huh? Welcome to FR.
I.e. start doing (with his viewpoint) what Trump had been doing (for his own viewpoint) from the moment he leaped into it. Not a bad advice for a would be victor....
Read it. Cruz is understating it, is what is meant. Cool yer jets.
Absolutely right about Kerry, Senator Cruz.
I agree. Kerry has been a trait since at least his “Jenjis Kahn” days.
GO TED!!
You misread it. Let me put the same sentiment a different way: Kerry was unfit before the comments, too. Unfit for Command.
Now where had I heard that before. /rhetorical
John Kerry is from the Winthrop family. In 1937 they were the 22nd richest family in the US. If you come from the right family you go places, even if you are barely a B player.
http://www.nndb.com/lists/439/000127058/
Pretty much. It might also be of mutual benefit to be seen as having complimentary skill sets and expertise. You know the Democrats will just have some saddo with a bolt on candidate to appeal to a different demographic, with no intellectual dimension beyond pandering.
Methinks it’s the Wimpthrop family.
More encompassing: All traitors, including Kerry, are "utterly unfit" for office.
Methinks it’s the Wimpthrop family.
Kerry and his boss were manifestly unfit for American public office....long before Kerry’s proto-Nazi statements against Jerusalem
nonetheless, GOOD FOR CRUZ! we need to SPEAK UP against this grossly immoral sort of behavior in “our” government
Let’s get Kerry OUT, or at least impeached ... ASAP!
(Yes, Obama will just then nominate Valarie Jarrett or some other IslamoNazi pal of his for SecOfState, but meanwhile we will be making some progress...nonetheless)
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