Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting separately today with the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He’ll be discussing the status of talks he’s had with the Israelis and Palestinians over the last couple of days.
Kerry is asking both parties to help him build a framework for peace negotiations, and the process has reached a difficult stage where intransigence on each side threatens to derail the effort. It is therefore somewhat amazing that Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and John Barrasso (R-WY) traveled to Israel in order to criticize Kerry and undermine his position.
Pro-Israel Republican Senators John McCain (AZ), Lindsay Graham (SC) and John Barrasso (WY) showed up in Jerusalem on Friday, apparently to remind the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that they do not feel he is sufficiently supportive of the Israeli Prime Minister and his negotiating positions.
How often does a U.S. Senate delegation visit a foreign country, during a visit of a high ranking State Department official in order to make their opposition to the official U.S. position known? Has it ever happened before? And does the fact that we are talking about Israel make it OK?
John McCain, in particular, seems to make it his personal mission to try to prevent peace from breaking out anywhere on Earth. The pattern has become so consistent at this point that I’m tempted to posit some kind of demonic influence.
The spectacle was too much for Jane Harman, which is saying something.
I understand that Lindsey Graham is in a tough primary but gee whiz guys, I think being the mouthpiece of the Prime Minister of Israel while our Secretary of State is there is not very smart.
And Bibi Netanyahu has direct channels to John Kerry any time he wants to use them either public or private, and I think frankly what they did, however well intended it might have been or however focused on their politics it might have been, should not have happened.
I don’t think that Lindsey Graham went to Israel to help his reelection prospects. He went because he, along with McCain, is pushing a neo-conservative policy that opposes a Palestinian state. They’re all there to undermine the administration and sabotage peace.
Don’t mince words guys – they are deliberately undermining the State Department for partisan gain.
It is called TREASON!
No quite “treason,” but they definitely are seriously trying to undermine the policy goals of the POTUS and his SoS.
Here’s the definition of “treason” in the US Constitution:
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.”
Having said that, can anyone imagine the outcry if some Democratic Senators did this when “Little Boots” Bush was POTUS?
The Reich-Wingers would have wanted their heads to come back on sticks.
Israel is a Terrorist State. The Mother of all Terrorist States. An utterly alien invasive occupier perpetrating an American Taxpayer conceived, financed and morally sanctioned genocide upon the indigenous descendants of the “biblical hebrew”. It has no “right” to exist and This World Will Never Know Peace until it does not.
No fear.
Nice company they’re keeping on Middle East visits – they’re following the recent trips over there by the stupid, ignorant, and unfunny “Three Amigo’s,” from the House.
So now, Senator John “America’s Shittiest Pilot Still Alive” McCain (R – AlZheimers), and Senator Limpseed Cornpone Grahamcrackers (R- SCloset – NTTAWWT, except the “closeted” part of being gay, and working against the interests of other gay people), join such illustrious company as the three House assclowns – Gohmert, Bachmann, and S. King, in trying to undermine and totally muck-up US foreign policy.
It ain’t exactly treason, but it shouldn’t be allowed, and should be punishable.
Most rational House and Senate members – aka: non-Republicans – would never even think of undermining their POTUS, even if he’s from another party, by going overseas.
Nixon sabotaged LBJ’s peace talks with the Vietnamese. He didn’t want an ‘October Surprise’ of peace to boost Humphrey’s chances in 1968.
Yes.
After Nixon did that – and a lot else that helped ruin this country.
But he looks pretty good in comparison to Ronnie and W.
.
Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran … bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
Fortunately everywhere McCain has involved himself stepping in foreign policy interference led to disaster. The traitor to US interests once again shows his contempt for Democracy and the separation of powers between Congress and the executive to set US foreign policy. Netanyahu shouldn’t feel comfortable with McCain’s visit. See recent McCain’s visit to Kiev in the Ukraine, northern Syria and Cairo in Egypt. Even his affair with Saakashvilli’s Georgia wasn’t a success before the war against Putin’s Russia.
Earlier posted in my diary – McCain In Jerusalem to Voice Opposition to Kerry’s Peace Push. Additional background info and analysis from the Middle East.
Major effort by John Kerry to push forward I-P peace talks in context of the greater Middle East region that includes Syria, Iraq and Iran. By extending his visit, Secretary Kerry blocks any interval in time for criticism or sarcasme to get in the way of his task. Well done!
○ Is Bibi Shedding His Peace-Seeker Pose? by J.J. Goldberg
○ Kerry Focus On ME Region, Will Stay 3 More Days
○ Iraq’s Al-Maliki Following US Advice In Anbar Province to Defeat Al Qaeda
Do you suppose nobody had the heart to tell the old fool he lost the election and now lives the illusion that he is POTUS?
/snark
or in his befuddlement he forgot he lost
I immediately think of Mr. Magoo whenever I hear his name.
mr magoo in the presidential debates!!
McCain seems to have forgotten whatever he learned as a POW in Vietnam.
Perhaps it would be best if Hezbollah grabbed him and gave him a forceful reminder.
And while he’s at it:
http://www.juancole.com/2014/01/lindsey-graham-falluja.html
Have noticed a pattern here. Presidents of the US launch their Israeli/Palestinian peace project as standard issue second term initiatives. The Israelis wait them out or blow it up and blame the others.
Maybe they would be taken more seriously if they were first term ititiatives??
Does anyone really think this has a chance in hell with Bibi as a partner? Or is this an.. only Nixon folorn hope.
forlorn. Wish you had an edit function.
Yeah, the problem is that the probability of success is low, and the probability of a messy failure is high.
President Obama did try it in his first term and it failed spectacularly like it has for every other President. The only difference now is this President gets a second try at success.
Thank you, I am corrected.
Heeding a lesson from Jimmy Carter. First term ME peace accord bad for re-election prospects.
Notice what Jane Harman, a fully committed ZioBot, is saying here……
She is not talking about US policy so much as she’s bemoaning the fact that the Zionist influence on US policy is becoming ever more clear and out in the open. THAT is what is not smart. Remember, the night flower of the Zionist lobby works best when it’s actions are not seen.
Thank you for pointing out Jane Harman’s role. I find it darkly funny that she’s accusing another US politician of being a mouthpiece of Netanyahu. How have our electeds not killed irony yet?
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Cross-posted from my diary – McCain In Jerusalem to Voice Opposition Kerry’s Peace Push.