Why John Kerry and others were wrong about peace and Israel - analysis
Kerry said in 2016 that “there will be no advanced and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that."
By
SETH J. FRANTZMAN
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
As Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain waltzed toward an
agreement this week many were surprised by the lack of Israeli “concessions” and lack of a Palestinian state coming alongside the agreement. For two and a half decades the paradigm that was pushed by experts on the peace process was that Israel would have to withdraw and give “concessions” in order to achieve normalization.
The belief in this manifesto became so strong that some of those involved in the peace process quietly urged Arab states not to make peace unless Israel made concessions, having become invested in the need to be right about the conflict.
The embodiment of these theories is former US presidential candidate and former Secretary of State John Kerry. A series of videos of the former diplomat constantly warning of violence if the US embassy was moved to Jerusalem and arguing that Israel could never have peace with its neighbors without a Palestinian state have emerged.
