Within a scant few hours after U.S. Secretary of State delivered a blistering attack on the government of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his farewell speech to the State Department, the leader of the Jewish State had a few well-chosen words of his own to say to America’s chief diplomat.
Mr. Netanyahu expressed his “deep disappointment” with a speech that he called “almost as unbalanced as the anti-Israel resolution passed at the UN last week, in a speech ostensibly about peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
The prime minister said Mr. Kerry paid “lip service” to the unending campaign of terrorism waged by Arabs against Israel “for nearly a century.” He noted the Secretary spent most of his speech instead “blaming Israel for the lack of peace” instead, and pointed out that “hundreds of suicide bombers, thousands — tens of thousands — of rockets, millions of Israelis and bomb shelters are not throwaway lines in a speech; they’re the realities the people of Israel have to endure because of mistaken policies…that at the time won the thunderous applause of the world.”
He added that he is not seeking applause, but rather the security, peace, prosperity and the future of the Jewish State.
With an added edge to his voice, Mr. Netanyahu said, “Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders. Israel’s hand has been extended in peace to its neighbors from Day One, from its very first day.
“We pray for peace. We’ve worked for it every day since then, and thousands of Israeli families have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our country and advance peace. My family has been one of them. There are many, many others.”