Newfound Jewish roots gave Kerry a ‘deep’ bond with Israel
Secretary of state, who only learned his grandparents were Jews in 2004, says he understands Israelis’ reluctance to sign a deal
February 20, 2014, 11:32 pm
US
Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to an Israeli reporter in an
interview aired Thursday, February 20, 2014 (screen capture: Channel 2)
US Secretary of State John Kerry
says his feelings toward Israel changed 10 years ago, after he found
out that that he had Jewish grandparents.
“It’s
a connection that’s deep. I lost a great-uncle in the Holocaust and a
great-aunt. I never knew that until then. To learn that, after years of
being passionate about ‘never again,’ with respect to the Holocaust, and
then to understand that you are biologically and personally connected
to that, is very moving,” he said in an interview aired on Thursday by
Israel’s Channel 2.
“Israel itself has a special connection to me,
not just because of that personal, now-known connection, but more
importantly because of the amazing journey of the Jewish people,” he
said in the interview, which was conducted last Tuesday at the State
Department. “And now I’ve learned that, I have got a better sense of
that.”
Kerry first found out about his Jewish
ancestry in 2004, when he was running for president against George W.
Bush. Both his father’s parents were born Jews and converted to
Christianity because of anti-Semitism, and they changed their name from
Cohen to Kerry when they immigrated to the United States.
Asked by the interviewer, Ilana Dayan, whether
he felt that Israelis were still defined by their tragedies to the
extent that those events made them hesitant to take the “leap of faith”
necessary to withdraw from the West Bank and agree to the establishment
of a Palestinian state, Kerry answered in the affirmative.
“But,” he added, “here is what I want to
emphasize: I think my job is to try to help create a situation where the
realities of the agreement are such that it’s not such a leap of faith.
I don’t want this to be a leap of faith. I want this to be a leap of
reason. A leap of rationality and of choice, based on a very
understandable and tangible set of guaranties about security and other
things.”
If that could be achieved, Kerry continued,
“then we take some of the emotion away… even though it will be for some
always a huge emotion, because some people have very different views
about greater Judea and Samaria — I know all of that. But I also know
that over 70 percent of the people of Israel believe in a two-state
solution.”
The secretary of state said that he sometimes
spends hours on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
understands him. But he was hesitant to say whether he believes
Netanyahu would agree to the kind of concessions a peace agreement would
require. “If we’ve answered all of the challenges of security for
Israel, if he has secured the nation state of Israel as the home of the
Jewish people, if he has secured recognition and secured the refugee
issue — properly dissolved — I hope he will,” Kerry said.
Netanyahu’s primary concern is the security of
Israeli civilians, Kerry stressed. “I have said this to [Palestinian
Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas: The primary issue for any Israeli
is to know that if they make an agreement, they are safer and stronger
because of the agreement than they were before they made it. And that
goes contrary to past experience in pulling out of Lebanon and pulling
out of Gaza.”
Kerry hinted that settlers might not have to
relocate under the terms of a peace deal. Asked about the personal price
that a settler might have to pay when required to leave his home as a
result of an accord, Kerry replied that he was not sure this would be
necessary.
“I have no argument with anyone in Israel who
says that no deal is better than a bad deal. I say that myself,” he
said. “I’m not in the business of trying to put together a bad deal.”
Kerry dismissed criticism of him from
right-wing Israeli politicians, particularly Defense Minister Moshe
Ya’alon, who said the top US diplomat was “messianic and obsessive.”
“You know, those are judgments that other
people may or may not have fun making in this process. I’m doing my
job,” he said. Kerry claimed he was not insulted by Ya’alon’s remarks.
“I think I am committed, and I’m determined.”
The secretary of state declined to comment on
his gut reaction in January to Yedioth Ahronoth’s publication of
Ya’alon’s scathing criticism, which targeted the US mediation of the
peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“That’s not the way I operate. I’m an optimist
and I am a believer in possibilities,” he said. “People who know me
know that when I sink my teeth into something, if I get the bit between
my teeth, I try to get it done.”
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