Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said in private that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry acts out of “misplaced obsession and messianic fervor [and] cannot teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians.”
Ya’alon, whose remarks were quoted by the Yediot Acharonot newspaper, also commented, The only thing that can ‘save us’ is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.”
As for Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, “The moment we leave Judea and Samaria) he is finished” because Israel has kept him alive, according to Ya’alon, who also declared that the American security plan for Israel is “not worth the paper it’s written on.”
It was not reported where and when he made the statements, which probably reflect exactly what most of the Likud and Jewish Home parties think but don’t say out loud.
Opposition leader and Labor party chairman Yitzchak Herzog spring into action after hearing of Ya’alon comments and responded, “Kerry has been making every effort possible. It won’t be tolerated if he’s slandered against.”
Tzipi Livni, head of her party of six Knesset Members and Israel’s senior negotiator, wrote on her Facebook page, “Our relations with the US are our biggest national strategic asset, and they are vital for Israel’s security. You can oppose the negotiations and still not verbally attack and damage our relationship with our best ally.”