The White House is upset that the integrity of Secretary of State Kerry is being questioned.
No, really, stop laughing, we're outraged at the Israeli defense minister's comments:
"Secretary of State John Kerry - who has come to us determined and is acting out of an incomprehensible obsession and a messianic feeling - cannot teach me a single thing about the conflict with the Palestinians," the biggest-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Yaalon as saying behind closed doors.
"The only thing that can save us is if Kerry wins the Nobel prize and leaves us alone."
Kerry has been on a diplomatic blitz in recent weeks to persuade Israel and the Palestinians, who resumed statehood talks in July after a three-year deadlock, to agree on an outline proposal addressing the core issues of their conflict.
In a strong rebuke to Yaalon, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that if accurate, his remarks were "offensive and inappropriate, especially given all that the United States is doing to support Israel's security needs".
We find those comments "offensive" and "inappropriate."
Okay.
Hey, what are our new Iranian partners saying about us?
"We had announced previously that on certain issues, if we feel it is expedient, we would negotiate with the Satan (the United States) to deter its evil," [Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei told a gathering, reported by the official IRNA news agency.
By contrast to the Israeli's statement, Iran got a pass and we look forward to coming to an agreement with Iran on their nuclear program.
Iran has set limits on those negotiations, of course:
“We will in no way, never, dismantle our [nuclear] centrifuges,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told the country’s state-run television station on Sunday, according to New York Times reporter Thomas Erdbrink.
“Iranians endured sanctions for 10 years, resisted, so the world would respect our right to enrichment, this is now the case,” Araqchi was quoted as saying. “This game is played in our court. We cannot lose and return to enrichment as we wish.”
State Department outrage is suddenly hard to find.
The Israeli defense minister has a point. Could we engineer a Nobel Peace Prize for Kerry based on his potential for future peace deals in the Middle East? There is precedent for that.
Then maybe Kerry would stop thrashing around the world stage knocking things over.
