Ted Cruz And Marco Rubio Slam John Kerry’s Speech On Israel

Earlier today, Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech, defending the Obama administration’s decision to abstain from the U.N.’s resolution on Israeli settlements. You see, by abstaining, the United States kept the possibility of a two-state solution alive. That’s the argument Kerry’s trying to make.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded shortly after and slammed Kerry’s approach to the situation. He expressed his disappointment in the Obama administration and said Israel still supports a two-state solution. However, it’s hard to compromise when the other side refuses to accept your right to exist. That’s the problem– not Israeli settlements. I repeat, Palestinians refuse to accept a Jewish state. They want them wiped off the face of the earth. You simply cannot compromise with that.

Bibi isn’t the only one slamming the Obama administration’s delusion. Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio both released scathing statements on the day’s events.

Here’s Cruz’s statement:

“Like bitter clingers, President Obama and Secretary Kerry are spending every last minute of this administration wreaking havoc domestically and abroad. With their last breath in office, they have struck at Israel, through the United Nations and through today’s disgraceful speech.

 

“These acts are shameful. They are designed to secure a legacy, and indeed they have: history will record and the world will fully understand Obama and Kerry as relentless enemies of Israel. Their actions were designed to weaken and marginalize Israel, and to embolden its enemies.

 

“Today’s speech — like Kerry’s 2014 remarks likening Israel to an apartheid state — will enflame rising anti-Semitism in Europe. It will encourage the mullahs who hate Israel and hate America. And it will facilitate ‘law-fare,’ growing legal assaults on Israel through transnational legal fora.

 

“Kerry’s speech drew a stunning moral equivalence between our great ally Israel and the Palestinian Authority, currently formed in a ‘unity’ government with the vicious terrorists of Hamas. Secretary Kerry declared the Hamas regime in Gaza ‘radical,’ in the same way he declared the duly-elected government of Israel ‘extreme.’ He declared vicious terrorism sponsored by Hamas equal to Israeli settlements in West Bank. And he equated Israel’s celebration of its birth with the Palestinian description of this event as the ‘disaster.’ His speech attempted to lay out an historic and seismic shift towards the delegitimization of our ally, Israel, and the further empowerment of the Palestinian Authority.

 

“Kerry’s central conclusion, that ‘Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both’ is an inanity that passes as profound only in Ivory Tower faculty lounges. There are roughly 50 majority-Muslim countries in the world. There is one — only one — Jewish state. And yet, for Kerry and Obama, that is too much.  The Israeli Knesset has 17 elected Arab members. It has Muslim members and Christian members. In contrast, one searches in vain for Muslim countries that have elected Jewish representatives.

 

“It is a sign of their radicalism and refusal to defend American interests, that Obama and Kerry choose to attack the only inclusive democracy in the Middle East — a strong, steadfast ally of America — while turning a blind eye to the Islamic terrorism that grows daily.

 

“America is an unshakable friend of Israel, and we are horrified at what has transpired this week.

 

“I believe Obama’s and Kerry’s shameful conduct will backfire. That it will be short-lived, and will inspire a bipartisan repudiation of their radical anti-Israel agenda.

 

“All Americans who understand the value of the U.S.-Israel alliance must immediately and unequivocally reject their false and dangerous narrative, and reassert our fundamental commitment to Israel’s security. Thankfully, Congress and the incoming administration can and I hope will take decisive action to intercept the administration’s final and desperate Hail Mary, and that should begin with eliminating U.S. funding to the U.N., unless and until this disgraceful resolution is reversed.

 

“I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as well as the incoming administration to chart a new path forward based on America’s national security interests and clear-eyed reality, not on the Obama administration’s globalist agenda and wishful thinking.”

And Rubio’s statement:

“Secretary Kerry today once again decided to cater to the demands of freedom’s enemies and devote an entire speech to disparaging a country that is one of our closest allies. This administration’s shameful undermining of our moral standing in the world should be a warning to administrations for decades to come about the consequences of America abandoning our values. When we fail to take a stand against those that seek to deny Israel’s right to exist or try to question the Jewish history of Jerusalem, we hurt not just Israel but our own credibility.

 

“The greatest immediate threat to the future of Israel is not a stalled peace process, or settlements, but the abandonment of the Jewish state by the current U.S. administration at a time when it needs America’s support more than ever.

 

“I look forward to working with President-elect Trump and his incoming team to restore our relationship with Israel to its proper place. I intend to continue to work with my colleagues to fight alarming efforts by those in the United States and internationally to promote modern day anti-Semitism through the boycott and divestment movement. I will also work to ensure that if the United Nations wants to continue to promote anti-Semitism and anti-Israel views, it will do so without U.S. taxpayer funding.

 

“This shameful episode in American foreign policy cannot end soon enough.”

Thanks to the incoming administration, there is hope. Even Cruz and Rubio– both who weren’t big fans of Trump (to say the least)– recognize that.