John Kerry: It’s a Mistake for Israel to Demand Recognition by Palestinians

In January U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has asked the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia to support Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

But that was January’s policy.

On Thursday, John Kerry repeated the this telling Congress it is a “mistake” for Israel to demand the Palestinians to recognize it as a Jewish State.
Israel National News reported, via Free Republic:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry thinks it is a “mistake” for Israel to demand that the Palestinian Authority (PA) recognize it as a Jewish state in order to achieve peace.

“I think it’s a mistake for some people to be raising it again and again as the decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we’ve obviously made that clear,” Kerry told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday, when asked to clarify the official position of the Obama administration on the issue, according to the Breitbart website.

He further said that the issue was resolved in 1947, when UN Resolution 181, which divided Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, was passed. This resolution, said Kerry, referred to “Jewish state” several times.

Kerry also said that former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat explicitly recognized Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has insisted that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state in order to reach a peace agreement, explaining that the Arabs’ refusal to recognize Israel stands at the heart of the conflict.

Last week State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki also told the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds that there was no need for the Palestinians to recognize Israel.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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