Kerry’s Best Kept Secret On the Middle East
The US uses its “invisible hand” for the latest mini-breakthrough in Israel.
![U.S. Secretary of State Kerry steps out of SUV as he prepares to depart from Mukataa following meeting with Palestinian President Abbas, in Ramallah U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry steps out of an SUV as he prepares to depart from the Mukataa following a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah July 19, 2013. REUTERS/ Mandel Ngan/Pool (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX11S5Q](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2013/07/Kerry.jpg/Kerry.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=DJDRgCVs)
A well-known American bureau chief in Israel of a major US newspaper always prided himself with knowing the key to getting Israel to politically move in the peace process. You must use invisible hands to hurt them, he told me shortly after the first intifada broke out. The Israelis must feel the pain without being able to clearly identify or expose the source of the pain, he said.
A look at the workings of the Obama administration in the last few weeks clearly points to the fact that they seem to have adopted this advice. Speaking during her confirmation hearing at the US Congress, the next US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, reversed a statement she had made years earlier. In 2002, Power proposed imposing a peace deal on Israelis and Palestinians militarily, even if such a policy alienated wealthy pro-Israel American Jews. Power totally recanted her statement. “I gave a long, rambling and remarkably incoherent response to a hypothetical question that I should never have answered," she said.