I’m going to address this status to John Kerry directly, in the hopes he’ll somehow read it.
Mr. Secretary, you were recently videotaped saying, “I have this map that shows all the sectors where the violence has been in-in Israel…in-in-in…and in the territories, and you will see that it’s where the settlements are.”
Let’s examine this sentence, shall we? There’s a lot to unpack, so please bear with me.
First of all, it’s good you have maps, Mr. Kerry. As Secretary of State, I’d say ‘having maps’ is much better than ‘not having maps.’ You clearly do not fall into Ms. North Carolina’s category of people who can’t find the Iraq, and, such as.
Hey, if you’ve got those maps you just said you do, could you specify where it is you’re referencing? I was under the impression that the United States State Department (your department, if I’m not mistaken) is of the opinion that Judea and Samaria, or “the territories,” are not part of Israel. Your stammering in this sentence leads me to believe that it’s difficult for you to distinguish between the two. Why do think that would be? Why would it be difficult to intellectually separate Israel with areas it acquired legitimately in a defensive war? Why would it be hard to differentiate between the Jewish State and areas which contain within them the bulk of Jewish history in the area? Maybe you just needed a drink, I don’t know.
You know, I have maps myself, and if you take a look, you’ll see that the areas hit by rockets fired by Hamas are nowhere near any settlements. I mean, they’re closer to settlements than, say, Las Vegas or Tokyo, but in terms of their relative proximity within Israel itself, they’re not even close. Rocket fire still counts as “violence,” right? So, are you NOT talking about Israel? Just the territories, then? Help me out, I’m confused here.
Next, I’d like to talk about your intent. It seems clear that your intent was to lay the blame of Israel/Arab violence on the settlements. But there’s a problem with that. The overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks in the territories has been agains Jews. I don’t have the statistics in front of me, but I would feel comfortable saying over 95% of all the violence in the territories is aimed against Jews. Do you know where those Jews live? You guessed it: in the settlements. Saying that the majority of violence is where the settlements are is like saying most traffic accidents take place on roads. Sure, every now and then a car will smash into a house or something, but usually traffic accidents happen on roads because that’s where the cars are. An Arab looking to kill a Jew isn’t going to try to find one in Wadi Nis or Abdallah Ibrahim; there aren’t any Jews there. He’s going to go to a settlement, what Maverick and Goose would refer to as “a target-rich environment.”
Which brings me to my final point. Since the Jews in settlements being attacked is the reason your map shows that’s where the violence is, this does not mean the settlements are the reason for the violence. That’s called ‘victim-blaming.’ Change the words “violence,” “Israel and territories,” and “settlements” with the words “rape,” “America,” and “women” respectively. Would you be comfortable making that statement? I sure as hell wouldn’t. The victim cannot, as a matter of definition, be the cause of the violence in any situation.
So, Mr. Kerry: thank you for reading this. I hope you now know how to interpret your map correctly. Now be quiet.