Islamic militant group Hamas was elected to power by Palestinians in 2006.
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"Kerry met in London with Agha, a long-time peace negotiator who has Abbas’ ear."...
1/24/18, "Kerry coaches Abbas: 'Stay Strong, Trump will soon be out of office,'" World Israel News, Batya Jerenberg
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| 7/4/2013, Kerry in Nantucket |
"The former secretary of state sent a message to the Palestinian president to “play for time,” claiming Trump would not be in office much longer.
According to a report in Israel’s Maariv newspaper, John Kerry, secretary of state under former president Barack Obama, held a meeting with a confidante of Mahmoud Abbas named Hussein Agha, in which he encouraged the Palestinian leader to defy President Trump and his peace-making efforts in the region. Abbas, Kerry said, “should stay strong in his spirit and play for time.” Kerry warned Abbas “not [to] break” or “yield to President Trump’s demands.”
Kerry met in London with Agha, a long-time peace negotiator who has Abbas’ ear, and reportedly gave him tips on how to interact with the Americans. He asked that Abbas not attack the US in general or the Trump administration, but to focus on attacking Trump personally.
The report said that Kerry hinted to Agha that many in the American establishment are dissatisfied with Trump’s actions and leadership. Kerry also reportedly communicated that he didn’t expect the president to remain in office for much longer. However, there were no specifics given as to how Kerry thought this would come about.
Ordinarily, the only reasons a president does not finish a term is due to incapacitation, resignation or impeachment by Congress. None of these scenarios is currently in the offing.
Kerry, who tried hard to restart the peace process in 2013-2014 with fruitless negotiations that collapsed after nine months, reportedly offered to help create an alternative peace plan to the one being developed by President Trump’s team of Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, notwithstanding the fact that the current administration’s plan has yet to be revealed.
Kerry also suggested that the Palestinians put forward their own peace plan, and promised that if they did, he would push it with all his might to everyone he knew to garner support for it in the international arena.
He also mentioned that he was seriously considering running for president in 2020. When asked about his advanced age (he would be 77), he said he was not much older than Trump (now 71) and would not have an age problem.
Kerry previously ran for president as the Democratic nominee in 2004, suffering defeat at the hands of George W. Bush, which gave the Republican a second term in office. The oldest person ever elected president was Ronald Reagan, who was elected for his second term at age 73."
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Image above, 7/4/2013, Sec. of State John Kerry offloads from a 1-person kyack near Nantucket Island, photo Boston Herald, 7/5/2013
In midst of Egypt turmoil, Obama admin. had earlier denied that Kerry was boating back in the US:
"(State Dept. spokesman) Ms Psaki had said: 'Any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate.' His aides even denied Mr Kerry was on a boat when CBS sent them a photo of the Secretary of State on board his yacht."...
Obama admin. was later forced to retract earlier statement on Kerry's whereabouts:
7/5/2013, "State Department retracts denial that John Kerry was yachting off Nantucket during Egypt coup," Boston Globe, Bryan Bender
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Added: Mahmoud Abbas is a former PLO leader. In 2006-2007 he lost political power to militant Islamists of Hamas:
"Following Arafat’s death in November 2004, Abbas was named head of the PLO. In January 2005 he easily won the election to succeed Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority, garnering more than 60 percent of the vote. Abbas was forced to confront deep divisions within the Palestinian Authority in 2006 after candidates backed by Hamas, a militant Islamic party, won a majority of seats in legislative elections. A short-lived Fatah-Hamas coalition government gave way to violence, and in 2007 Hamas established exclusive control in the Gaza Strip....In September 2015 Abbas announced in a speech to the UN General Assembly that Palestinians were no longer bound by the Oslo Accords, which he accused Israel of repeatedly violating."
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Even the Washington Post Editorial Board sees Hamas for what it is:
7/15/2014, "Hamas is playing a dangerous game with Gazan lives," Washington Post Editorial Board
"So far Hamas’s military campaign against Israel has been a dismal failure. Thanks in part to Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, some 1,200 rockets fired at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities have caused only one Israeli death and a few other casualties. Attempted commando attacks via the sea and a tunnel were stopped short, and a drone that ventured into Israel was quickly shot down.
Yet Hamas on Tuesday rejected an Egyptian cease-fire proposal that was supported by Western governments and the Arab League and had been accepted by Israel.
Why would Hamas insist on continuing the fight when it is faring so poorly? The only plausible answer is stomach-turning: The Islamic movement calculates that it can win the concessions it has yet to obtain from Israel and Egypt not by striking Israel but by perpetuating the killing of its own people in Israeli counterattacks. More than 200 people, including a number of children, have already died in Gaza; Hamas probably calculates that more deaths will prompt Western governments to pressure Israel to grant Hamas’s demands.
So far, the tactic is not working. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Tuesday condemned Hamas for rejecting the cease-fire and “us[ing] the innocent lives of civilians . . . as shields.” But Hamas’s commanders, who have burrowed into underground bunkers, appear to be doubling down. They are urging civilians who have left their homes to return, including some 15,000 who evacuated the northern part of Gaza in response to Israeli warnings. The cease-fire proposal was answered with a new barrage of missiles aimed at central Israel.
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To be sure, the Israeli government of Benjamin
Netanyahu has more incentive than Hamas to agree to a cease-fire, even
though a majority of the Israeli public probably opposes it. Israel has
little to gain from a prolonged conflict; a threatened ground invasion
of Gaza would cause heavy casualties on both sides and, if it destroyed
Hamas, leave Israel with the problem of finding a new government for the
territory.
Mr. Netanyahu is seeking the renewal of the truce that ended the last Israel-Hamas mini-war, in 2012. That would end attacks on both sides while allowing for a gradual opening of Gaza’s border for civilian trade.
Mr. Netanyahu is seeking the renewal of the truce that ended the last Israel-Hamas mini-war, in 2012. That would end attacks on both sides while allowing for a gradual opening of Gaza’s border for civilian trade.
Hamas’s rejection reflects its weakened position compared with two years ago. Egypt’s military government has shut down most of the cross-border tunnels that Hamas depended on for weapons as well as revenue, making it impossible for the Gaza administration to pay its workforce. The Islamists sought relief by forming a unity government with the secular, West Bank-based Fatah movement, but that did not lead to the payment of salaries or the reopening of the border with Egypt. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers last month, Israel arrested dozens of Hamas’s operatives in the West Bank, making their release another objective of the missile attacks.
To its credit, Israel has used sophisticated technology, including targeted text messages and dummy warning missiles, to minimize civilian casualties. But innocent people will inevitably be killed in attacks on launchers and missile factories that are purposely placed in densely populated areas. The right response of the international community is not to surrender to Hamas’s despicable tactics but to continue insisting that it unconditionally accept the cease-fire proposed by Egypt."
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