Radio Sputnik discussed US-Israeli relations with Dr. Mitchell Bard, Executive Director of the non-profit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
Commenting on the recent speech of US State Secretary John Kerry, Bard said:
"It was an extremely shameful performance given that thousands of people are being killed at the moment in Syria, and there are many more serious issues going on for him to spend over an hour just castigating Israel. It was really very surprising and disturbing," the expert told Sputnik.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry energetically defended the Obama administration's decision not to veto a UN Security Council bill condemning Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian land. Observers described Kerry's remarks as the toughest criticism in years by a US official of Washington's Israeli ally.
"The real problem with his speech was that he failed to acknowledge the fact that he and his predecessors failed to get the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table," the expert stated. He also added that the main stumbling block is the "unwillingness of the Palestinians to negotiate the issue, make any concessions or to agree to the existence of Jewish state next to the Palestinian state."
At the same time, the expert expects a dramatic improvement in US-Israeli relations once President-elect Trump takes the office.
"I think the Trump Administration will send a strong message to the Palestinians that they simply can't go around the negotiations," Bard stated. "Trump seems to understand — in a way that the Obama administration does not — that the radical Islam is the greatest threat in that region and that as long as the Palestinians adhere to the radical views that the Jewish state shouldn't exist, then there is not much chance for a two-state solution anytime in the near future."
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel and Palestine to agree on two-state borders based on 1967 lines. Kerry's remarks came amid a downturn in US-Israeli relations following Washington's decision to abstain from voting on the recent UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
After the Six Day War in 1967, Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula. The United States has been calling on Israel to accept borders that existed before the conflict.
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