John Kerry’s ninth-inning rally for Mideast peace
NOVANEW
Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a speech on Middle East peace at the State Department on Wednesday.
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
John Kerry devoted his first year as secretary of state to a passionate, relentless, exhausting, and ultimately failed quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace, so it’s not surprising he’d dedicate a swan song speech to laying out his last-ditch hope for two states in peace and security.
Kerry’s speech on Wednesday was a vigorous, rational defense of US policy to Israel and an argument for six well-established, bipartisan principles to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it comes at an inopportune time, amid bitter recriminations over President Barack Obama’s Mideast policy. How much impact Kerry’s parameters for peace — however reasonabl...