David, I am puzzled. If there were no useful new committments, why must Kerry announce ANYTHING except out of a masochistic aim to provide ammunition for critics?

However I thank you for reiterating some of the history that people make a habit of forgetting or ignoring.

Its quite an experience being in Muslim countries and experiencing their refusal to look reality in the face. History there is basically invented to make themselves seem good, when they deliberately created the Palestinian refugee problem to pressure Israel after their first illegal war failed.

Hi David

I've gotta say that Kerry has proven a disappointment on almost all issues including Israel, Syria and now Russia-Crimea-Ukraine. Kerry represents a US that is increasingly seen a indecisive and gradually weakening. Hillary Clinton and before that Rice did a better job.

Kerry, of course, is not alone, but represents foreign policy interests of Obama's administration. That administration has such characteristics as being liberal and intelligent but also lightweight, non-confrontational to the point of being weak in the face of authoritarian challenges. Challenges are coming from Russia, China, and of more direct relevance to Israel from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan and Iran.

The US-Kerry is not only pandering to the PLO but also the PLO's backers and financiers, which are again Saudi Arabia and also the UAE. In that sense the US's need for long term energy security is a constant background influence on US decision making with regard to the more public and constant Israel-PLO disagreement.

Regards

Pete

#ChrisPer

Kerry prolonged the current negotiations by promising that he would present his own framework agreement for peace on 29 January. This was subsequently postponed till 21 February then indefinitely postponed again until "before the end of April." - the deadline set by Kerry himself for the successful conclusion of the nine month negotiating period stipulated by Kerry in July 2013.

Kerry's huff, puff and bluff was exposed as a lot of hot air without substance.

Kerry needs to now come clean and publish his drafts and the objections raised by both Israel and the PLO.

If Kerry was conniving to circumvent the commitments made by President George Bush and the Congress to Israel - as specifically detailed in my article - then Kerry needs to be condemned to the diplomatic graveyard.

If however he was remaining true to those commitments then he would ensure that his diplomatic reputation and prestige would be preserved - not trashed.

Given the problems America faces in dealing with political crises in places like Syria and Ukraine - Kerry needs to prove himself to be prepared to fearlessly uphold the commitments made by the US to other countries or allies and not abandon them at the first sign of resistance by those who he is now seeking to influence.

Appeasement is the quickest route to disaster - as history makes so clear.

Same old singer, same old song, and almost as boring as bat poo!
Look,the middle East is really left with just two stark choices. Tie up the dogs of war, or just let them loose!
Israel, will fire every shot in the locker, before it allows Iran to posses nuclear weapons, let alone, God forbid, use them.
To that end, it becomes an increasing imperative for Israel alone, to finally agree on a long term solution, finally determined and fixed borders, and a two state solution!
If only to end the commercial boycotts and or, keep the few friends it has left, and who are also, extremely worried by the possibility of a nuclear armed Iran!
My enemy's enemy is also my friend!
Conversely and far more importantly, my enemy's friends, are also my enemies!
Rhrosty.

Rrrrrrosty contributes another gem of advice: "Look,the middle East is really left with just two stark choices. Tie up the dogs of war, or just let them loose!"

Given that Israel is nuclear-armed we would have WW3 on our hands and the American armament industries would go gangbusters.

Of course, in a capitalist world, this is seen as being ideal. Yeah, the war might spread across the world and make the rich 1% even richer.

Anyone who supports war is clearly brain-dead. Anyone who supports the USA is a moral cretin.

You Davids should really kiss and make up one day!

:)

Pete

The only long term solution to land theft is for the stolen property to be restored and the thieves to return, or be returned, to their own homelands, or share the stolen land with the native inhabitants on the basis of equal individual rights for all. No other solution will prevail without moral validation, and there has been no moral validation from the first day of the violent theft. No racist biblical blather (NONE!) can ascribe any moral validity to either great theft of Palestine or on any claims that a tiny racial group (ANY!) can be free of the moral constraints that bind the remaining seven billion of us. Kerry and Obama and all their successors will be increasingly aware of this as the Zionist claims (like Singer's) become more shrill and threatening to us all.

Speaking as a former soldier, the people who are asked to fight all our wars and make the ultimate sacrifice, are soldiers!
That being so, dare I suggest, I and every other current or former soldier, are the very last to want war!
The impression, David G, strives to give, while seriously and dishonestly misrepresenting my views, by selecting out of context.
Simply put, Israel, will not allow Iran, to become a nuclear armed adversary. They have everything to lose, by allowing that outcome to actually occur!
Even if that then requires them to release the dogs of war and obliterate Iran and her Middle eastern allies.
That rational analysis, doesn't mean that's what I want or approve, as D.G. implies, and par for the course, for that patently disingenuous USA hater.
The problem with unrequited hate D.G., is that it destroys all reason and logic!
It defies simply defies rational logic, that ancestral cousins, all sons and daughters of Jacob, should not be able to settle their differences, without spilling blood?
I mean, in just 10-9 short years, the Arabs inside Israel, will outnumber the Jews and have the numbers to control parliament and through it, Israel's Mighty war machine/nuclear inventory.
Given their total history, 10-9 years is merely a moment in time!
That said, there seems very little reason or logic on display in either Israel, or those clearly hostile to it, in either the west, east, north, south or the middle, but a great big heaping helping of entirely irrational hate!
That's why, the Middle East, will erupt in war and before the Jews lose control of their parliament or military machine!
It's therefore, just a matter of time before the Middle East erupts in nuclear armed war, and the best reason we have, for divorcing ourselves from any involvement with, or dependence on any part of it!
With the end of that war, nobody will use nuclear weapons ever again.
It's a conflict that has no possible winners!
Rhrosty.

Another Rrrhosty gem:
'It's therefore, just a matter of time before the Middle East erupts in nuclear armed war, and the best reason we have, for divorcing ourselves from any involvement with, or dependence on any part of it!'

Given that Australia supports Israeli military aggression and imperialism and is the No1 cheerleader for the world's biggest warmonger and imperialist, the U.S., we can hardly divorce ourselves from the coming conflict or its terrible aftermath.

Rrrhosty's confused thinking and clear pro-war sentiments are widespread in Australia and in the U.S.

He doesn't understand that you can't have your cake and eat it too!

Yeah certainly in my first year of Uni I was into such juvenile mantras as:

"military aggression and imperialism and is the No1 cheerleader for the world's biggest warmonger and imperialist,"

Then I grew up...

I see no evidence in your comments that you grew up, Pete.

You're like many, a closet militarist who supports the 'invade, occupy and plunder brigade', the one led by the U.S.

No intelligent or mature human being advocates war!

Plantagenet holds in response to David G that to describe the USA is the world's biggest warmonger and imperialist is a "juvenile mantra". I must have been asleep all these years. Has there been a bigger one? Someone to send armed forces into more countries outside its own territory to control more foreign territory?

EJ

Like DG you're more about hating the US and Israel than concern for human rights.

Putin is following the well trod path of all Russian leaders ie. brutal, miscalculating and authoritarian.

Ukraine has enjoyed independence from Russia for only a short period of time in its history - with the establishment of a republic after the timely collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s.

Ukraine has suffered a tragic history as a vassal of Russian imperialists. It was in the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 that Ukraine got its first glimpse of independence.

It was under the rule of the USSR and Stalin from 1932-1933 that the Ukraine faced the extreme measures that Russians would go to in order to ensure political domination. During the Holodomor (Death by Hunger).

The Soviet government diverted food deemed “surplus” to other parts of the USSR, causing the deaths of somewhere between seven and twelve million Ukrainians. This was intentional murder - to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people.

The official Soviet census in 1926 showed a population of 29,018,817 Ukrainians, with an estimated growth rate of 2.65%. By the time the next census was taken in 1939, there should have been a population of 40,770,506, however there was only a population of 30,946,218. Using the methodology used by The Lancet in the mid 2000s (for Iraqis who should have been alive) the Ukrainian figures indicate the Russians killed over nine million Ukrainians.

also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial_of_the_Holodomor

Clearly Russia needs to bring in a Ukrainian Sorry Day or at least not torture Ukraine again.

Think about it.

Pete

"Like DG you're more about hating the US and Israel than concern for human rights," opines Pete, OLO's principal American apologist!

The U.S. and Israel, currently are the greatest deniers of human rights in the world. Both of them are war-lovers and imperialists and both are engaged in creating empires near Tel Aviv and Washington.

Both of them kill using a variety of weapons not least of which are drones as well as depleted uranium and various chemicals which create hideous birth defects. Both of them are into torture in a big way and don't care about how many civilians they kill.

Both of them are power-mad and believe that might is right. Both of them believe they are exceptional and superior and born to rule. The U.S. is well advanced in its attempt to control the world and only Russia and China stand in its way!

And both of them have used nukes or threatened to use them if they're thwarted in their hegemonic ambitions.

Sane humans must stand against Israeli and American imperialism if they want to avoid nuclear war!

Only deranged people support endless war!

Hi David Singer

Slightly off topic. We can probably agree that Israel has a nuclear arsenal and needs it given Iran's nuclear aims.

For the record Phillip Dorling for The Canberra Times, April 15, 2014, reported http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-still-denies-israels-open-secret-of-a-nuclear-arsenal-20140414-36nr4.html :

"Australia still denies Israel's open secret of a nuclear arsenal"

"Secret government files reveal that Australian governments, diplomats and spies have known for more than 30 years that Israel has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, while continuing to deny any knowledge of its existence to the point of misleading Parliament.

Previously secret diplomatic files declassified by the National Archives reveal a longstanding policy to turn a blind eye to Israel's nuclear arsenal. Last week the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade again declined to comment on whether the Australian government thinks Israel is an undeclared nuclear weapons state.

Foreign Affairs Department briefing papers prepared for former Labor foreign minister Bill Hayden in 1987 state that ''intelligence assessments are that Israel has a small arsenal of nuclear weapons (possibly about 20). Israel's technological capabilities would enable it confidently to deploy such weapons without recourse to a nuclear test.

In a confidential exchange with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Hans Blix on September 22, 1987, Mr Hayden ''commented that there appeared no doubt that Israel had nuclear weapons''.

Mr Hayden and Dr Blix were talking against the backdrop of the treason trial of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who in 1986 disclosed detailed evidence of Israel's nuclear weapons production. The Foreign Affairs Department advised Mr Hayden to publicly deny knowledge of Israel's nuclear weapons capabilities. Mr Hayden told Parliament on September 17, 1987: ''We have no information to corroborate these allegations.''

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-still-denies-israels-open-secret-of-a-nuclear-arsenal-20140414-36nr4.html

CONTINUED FROM ABOVE

"However, Foreign Affairs' files, declassified in response to applications by Fairfax Media, reveal that Australia had been monitoring Israel's nuclear program from its beginnings in the 1950s.

Australia scooped US and British intelligence when in 1966 its Atomic Energy Commission obtained ''highly sensitive'' information from the French builders of Israel's Dimona nuclear facility, revealing the existence of a chemical processing plant to extract plutonium from spent reactor fuel.

By 1970 Australia's Joint Intelligence Organisation thought ''Israel could have some weapons''.

Australian policy remains unchanged, with the Abbott government deciding last October not to support a UN General Assembly resolution on nuclear proliferation in the Middle East - 169 countries voted for the resolution. Only five - the US, Israel, Canada, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia - voted against. Australia abstained.
Former foreign minister Professor Gareth Evans has long been closely engaged with nuclear disarmament issues. Last month he publicly described Israel as one of ''nine nuclear-armed states'' committed to the ''indefinite retention'' of their arsenals.

On Monday Professor Evans declined to explain why Australia had not acknowledged the existence of an Israeli nuclear weapons program, saying only: ''The whole world hasn't acknowledged it. I mean, this is the strange thing, but that's another story for another day." ENDS

My comment is that Australia would do well to join the US, Israel, Canada, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia in actually voting against the UN's regular General Assembly resolution on nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, rather than Australia only abstaining.

Regards

Pete

I wonder why this Easter as in others there is no out-pouring of anti-war sentiment. Religion, based on love, seems to be able to change its spots at will.

Of course, clerics are experts at the 'pea and thimble' trick and they should be given the centuries of successful repetition they've had.

Jesus escaping the tomb has proved to be a popular tale among humans though it must be said, "Not All!"

Religion tells us many things about humans.

They are exemplary liars!

Yeah thats something we can agree on DG.

It is written that Jesus:

- oddly tall (6'2" in his socks)

- oddly Nordic in appearance (long red to blond hair)

- Known to Roman Police

Died on the Friday, rose on the Sunday and enjoyed Monday off - as it was a public holiday.

With Intellectual Property rights from the Papacy, other churches, all sellers of eggs, cards, bunnies, s---loads of chocolate and any manufacturer of dairy products http://youtu.be/RpkWT5voTSE .

I trust you had a happy Easter, Pete. May the Gods smile upon you!

Thanks David G

Have a happy Easter Monday.

Regards

Pete

I have kept quiet for a few weeks now on the promise of a brown paper bag being delivered to me by Frank Lowy himself. Still waiting.

You can't trust Zionists

I'ii give them a few more days but if it doesn't arrive by then - I am spilling the beans.