Krauthammer: Kerry 'Undermined' Israel-Hamas Peace Efforts
PM
Speaking on "Special Report with Bret Baier" on Fox News, Krauthammer blasted Kerry, saying he crashed the negotiations uninvited and "undermined" Egypt's attempts to settle the war in Gaza.
"The Israelis did not invite him," Krauthammer told Fox. "The Egyptians did not want him and he still says he advanced a peace plan that was sort of building on the Egyptian one. It didn't at all. It undermined it."
"Egypt wanted a cease-fire in place, which means no reward for Hamas starting this war by attacking civilians, which is a war crime," Krauthammer told Fox. "And that was proposed before the ground incursion. The casualties would have been infinitely lower. Israel accepted — Hamas said no.
"Kerry goes over and then he negotiates in Paris with who? Qatar and Turkey, and returns essentially as the lawyer for Hamas and hands Israel a proposition that is so outrageous that the Cabinet votes 19-0 against it.
"Israeli Cabinets have never voted 19-0 on whether the sun rises in the east. It was unbelievable. It would have given Hamas all of its demands," Krauthammer told Fox News.
Or worse, said Danny Danon, former Israeli deputy defense minister, who told CNN'sWolf Blitzer, "Secretary Kerry's proposal was an insult for us."
"I think what Secretary Kerry did last week was a mistake. It put Israel and Hamas on the same level. It is like, I would tell you that the U.S. and al-Qaida are on the same level."
In an interview with Israeli Radio, the Jerusalem Post reports that Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said she told Kerry his proposal was "completely unacceptable" and "would strengthen extremists in the region."
Krauthammer told Fox, "Look at the wreckage Kerry has done in intervening in the Israeli-Gaza fighting. A left-wing Israeli paper said Kerry had dug a tunnel under the Egyptian peace plan.
"When you see what happens when America engages, you wonder if we shouldn't have more disengagement."
