US Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) this week will only heighten tensions - not calm terrorism, former Israeli ambassador to the US Dr. Yoram Ettinger opined Tuesday.
"This visit unfortunately will not not mitigate terrorism, but on the contrary, pour oil on the fire of terrorism," he stated, in a special Arutz Sheva interview. "Why reward and meet Mahmoud Abbas, the chief instigator?"
Washington continues to remain disconnected from reality, he said.
"The former senator met with Assad, both the father and the son, and ate dinner with their wives," he noted. "The senator refers to the Golan Heights as 'trivial' and pressured Israel to give up the Golan. He used to hold [PLO archterrorist Yasser] Arafat in high regard and referred to him as a 'statesman of peace'; as Secretary of State he still maintains that the Arab Spring is leading Arab countries to democracy."
Ettinger added that Kerry's career is characterized by
'erroneous assessments," - "so surely, again, he will call on Israel to make gestures [toward the Palestinians] and give over the immoral equivalence comparing terrorist to victim."
"Experience shows that all the attempts and plans the US have made [regarding Israel] have failed one by one, due to lack of understanding of the complexity of the Middle East,"
He concluded. "Both the peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan were the result of Israeli initiatives and direct negotiations - not indirect negotiations and not through middlemen."
