Saturday, November 28, 2020

Ex-White House press secretary: John Kerry is a clown

John Kerry and Joe Biden

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer excoriated former Secretary of State John Kerry Friday, calling the 2004 presidential hopeful a “clown” for past comments on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

“How wrong can one man be?” Fleischer tweeted Friday afternoon, with a video attached of Kerry speaking at the Haim Saban Forum in 2016.

In the video, Kerry vigorously rejects the possibility of Israel negotiating separate peace deals with Arab states without first reaching a final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

“There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world. I want to make that very clear to all of you,” said Kerry at the 2016 Haim Saban Forum.

“I’ve heard several prominent politicians in Israel sometimes saying, ‘Well, the Arab world is in a different place now, we just have to reach out to them and we can reach some things with them, then well deal with the Palestinians.”

“No, no, no, and no. I can tell you that reaffirmed even in the last week as I have talked to leaders of the Arab community. There will be no advance and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everyone needs to understand that. That is a hard reality.”

In light of the string of deals reached this year between Israel and Arab and Muslim states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan, Fleischer mocked Kerry’s claims.

“This is Kerry in 2016 saying it’s a ‘hard reality’ that the Arabs won’t make peace w Israel until Israel first deals w the Palestinians. ‘No. No. No. No. No. No. No’ he said to those thinking they could work directly with Arab leaders. Kerry is a clown.”