According to a report by the Egyptian newspaper Al-Youm Al-Sabea, Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Ambassador Susan Rice met with a delegation of Palestinians on December 15 in Washington, D.C. and discussed introducing the anti-Israel resolution which was passed eight days later on December 23 by the UN Security Council thanks to an Obama-direct abstention.
The Egyptian newspaper published what it claims is the transcript of meetings between top U.S. and Palestinian officials that seems to corroborate Israeli accusations that the Obama administration was behind last week’s UN Security Council resolution. It hints that the Palestinians have already seen the plan Kerry is presenting on Wednesday, December 28, which Israel fears is the first step to the Obama administration imposing a “peace solution” on Israel.
On December 22, the day the original Security Council vote was to have taken place, the Israeli news site Walla published a report almost identical to the one on the Egyptian news site. Walla quoted a senior Israeli official as stating that in a meeting between Kerry and a Palestinian delegation to Washington headed by Palestinian Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat, agreement was reached on the matter of a resolution against the settlements, and that Kerry said the United States would not veto it.
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The five-page Arabic document released by the site appears to be a summary of the meeting, composed by the Palestinian delegation. If the document is authentic, it was probably leaked by officials in the Egyptian government.
During the meeting, Kerry promised the Palestinians the U.S.’s “full cooperation,” while Rice reportedly praised Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat for predicting four years ago that Netanyahu was not in favor of the two-state solution.
The Egyptian report says Kerry and Rice told the two PA officials that the Obama administration was ready to cooperate with a Palestinian action at the Security Council on condition that the resolution would be “balanced” (which in Obama administration terms means it’s going to be bad for Israel, but it won’t necessarily call for the death of Jews).
Supposedly, Rice and Kerry openly crapped all over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s (non-existent) attempt to kill the so-called two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. They also went after Trump. “The Trump administration is dangerous,” Rice reportedly said, adding that “Trump’s opinions about Israel and the Palestinians would be different from all previous administrations.”
The Egyptians quoted Secretary of State Kerry is as saying that he could present his ideas for a final-status solution if the Palestinians pledge they will support the proposed framework. Kerry has scheduled a speech laying out his version of a solution tomorrow (Wednesday the 28th). Which means that Kerry has already shared his framework with the Palestinians but not Israel.
Israel fears that Kerry will lay out his comprehensive vision for a two-state solution and then turn it into another Security Council resolution imposing additional anti-Israel settlement terms on Israel, or at the upcoming peace conference in Paris on January 15 that Israel is not attending – all before the Israel-hating Obama leaves the White House three weeks from this coming Friday. Another possibility is the US recognizing a Palestinian State. Any of the above eliminates the possibility of a negotiated solution.
The Egyptian report did not detail whose transcripts of the meeting it had obtained or how it had obtained them.
At the end of the meeting, the report said, Rice and Kerry requested that the content of the discussion remain secret because of the sensitivity of the matter during the transition period in the U.S. The same way Kerry kept negotiations for the Iran deal secret from Israel until it was too late.
Sources say the Egyptians most likely published the transcript to express their frustration with the attitudes of the Obama administration in orchestrating the move behind the back of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi.
State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner responded to the report and denied the contents of the document. Toner said that Kerry did not discuss the American position regarding the Security Council resolution in his meeting with Erekat and the Palestinian delegation.
Parts of this report were taken from the Times of Israel, Western Journalism, and from sources within Israel.
Cross-posted at LidBlog
