After Geneva

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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“[T]he most significant international event since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991” is the way Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post characterizes what happened last week at Geneva. The collapse of the Soviet Union, she reckons, “signaled the rise of the United States as the sole global superpower,” whereas nuclear talks with Iran that unfolded in Geneva last week “signaled the end of American world leadership.”

We wouldn’t want to say it’s the most devastating column we’ve read on the failure of President Obama’s foreign policy, but it’s right up there with the best of them. She is particularly blunt in respect of Secretary of State Kerry, whose confirmation by the Senate this newspaper had the honor to oppose. Mr. Kerry, she writes, “spent the first part of last week lying to Israeli and Gulf Arab leaders and threatening the Israeli people.”

On top of that, she writes, Mr. Kerry “lied to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Saudis about the content of the deal US and European negotiators had achieved with the Iranians.” She characterizes Mr. Kerry’s message as having “threatened the Israeli people with terrorism and murder – and so invited both – if Israel fails to accept his demands for territorial surrender to PLO terrorists that reject Israel’s right to exist.”

Ms. Glick also accuses Mr. Kerry of having laced his threats with “bigoted innuendo,” in that he “claimed that Israelis are too wealthy to understand their own interests. If you don’t wise up and do what I say, he intoned, the Europeans will take away your money while the Palestinians kill you. Oh, and aside from that, your presence in the historic heartland of Jewish civilization from Jerusalem to Alon Moreh is illegitimate.”

“What greater carte blanche for murder could the Palestinians have received than the legitimization of their crimes by the chief diplomat of Israel’s closest ally?” asks Ms. Glick. She notes that Baroness Ashton, who represents the European “Union,” could not have received “a clearer signal to ratchet up her economic boycott of Jewish Israeli businesses.” She also notes that Mr. Kerry’s message was delivered as Jews were preparing to mark the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a suggestion not that Mr. Kerry is a Nazi but that he’s playing with European fire.

The thing to bear in mind about all this is that Mr. Kerry was the first secretary of state that President Obama wanted. On Hillary Clinton, the president had been cornered by the primary campaign of 2008 and the political hulk of President Clinton. The symbol of Mrs. Clinton’s failure was Benghazi. When Mr. Obama won re-election and Mrs. Clinton was finally gone, he had for the first time a free hand in foreign affairs. He put together the most left-wing foreign policy team in American history.

These include two leading figures — Mr. Kerry and Secretary Hagel — who turned away from America’s fight in Vietnam and two other far left figures, Samantha Power at the United Nations and Susan Rice* at the National Security Council. No wonder Prime Minister Netanyahu is reported by the Times of Israel to be preparing give President Hollande a hero’s welcome when he arrives at Jerusalem. It almost doesn’t matter whether it was really the French who rejected a deal with the Mullahs. Compared to Mr. Kerry and his administration colleagues, Mr. Holland is a giant.

This is a tragedy for America — but it’s not the end. Mr. Obama may have been left by Geneva for all to see as an appeaser. But America’s collapse is not the same as the fall of the Soviet Union. We had, and still have, a functioning democracy. There will be a congressional election less than a year hence, and we have little doubt that it will be fueled not only by the calamity of Obamacare, the collapse of the dollar, and the high unemployment that have become the hallmarks of Mr. Obama’s presidency. We’d like to think that it will also focus on the collapse in our foreign affairs. We have not the slightest doubt that with the right leadership from America things can be turned around not only at home but abroad.

________

* The Debka File, an Israeli news site, has a slightly more encouraging take on Ms. Rice, transmitted yesterday: “Our Washington sources report that Rice and the NSC have taken a critical stand against the State Department’s policies – not just on the Iranian nuclear question, but also on Saudi Arabia, the Arabian Gulf and Egypt.”


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