WarSclerotic

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel for his third trip to the region since he took office on Feb. 1, and for the second time in the span of two weeks. The impetus for these visits is the urgency he feels in the face of the “clock ticking” toward a point of no return.

Too bad the deadline he has set for himself has nothing to do with the Iranian nuclear program. No, on that score, he is confident that his boss, President Barack Obama, has everything under control.

“All options are on the table,” Kerry reiterated on Monday, following his participation in the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. But diplomacy, he stressed, is still the preferred route.

He’s right about one thing: Diplomacy is certainly Iran’s preference, particularly in light of North Korea’s military muscle-flexing, which is testing the waters for a buoyed Tehran.

In fact, the reason for Kerry’s country-hopping is to reignite peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. To this end, first he flew to Istanbul on Sunday, where he made an appeal to the Turkish government to “play a role” in pushing the process forward.

To say that this is delusional would be to diminish the depth of its derangement. Turkey has been making overtures to Hamas in Gaza and remains hostile to Israel, in spite of Obama’s brokering a restoration of ties between the two countries during his own visit to Jerusalem last month. And though a group of Israeli diplomats is scheduled to go to Ankara in the near future, the purpose of the delegation is to discuss the multi-millions of dollars in compensation to be paid to the families of the Turkish radicals who were killed during the “Free Gaza” flotilla raid in 2010.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made it clear to Kerry that Israel would have to meet a stringent set of preconditions before Turkey would agree to kiss and make up. These include lifting the naval blockade of Gaza.

Even Israeli Justice Minister and negotiation coordinator Tzipi Livni, known for her almost religious faith in the ability to achieve a peace deal with the Palestinians, did not think that Turkish mediation was a good idea.

In any case, Kerry’s first stop after arriving from Turkey on Sunday evening was Ramallah. There he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The contents of that meeting were not released to the media, but Palestinian officials who wished to remain nameless leaked (or lied about) two interesting items. One was the assertion that the Obama administration is softening its position with regard to reconciliation between Abbas’ Fatah faction and Hamas. Another was that the Palestinian Authority had no intention of canceling efforts to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court – though “we are [temporarily] freezing them.”

The next morning, Kerry held talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, but at the American consulate in Jerusalem, not in Ramallah. This is because Fayyad is about to be fired by Abbas, and the expression “bad blood” in the Middle East has a more literal meaning than it does in the West. Still, Kerry can’t help Fayyad; nor does Fayyad have the authority to discuss deals of any kind with anyone.

Another pointless get-together was that which Kerry had with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Peres may be a favorite on Capitol Hill, but he is only a figurehead in Jerusalem. So his chat with Kerry was undoubtedly a repetition of the usual mantras. This was indicated by the remarks Kerry made to the press when the two peace partners (Kerry and Peres, that is) were done with their pow-wow.

“I have no illusions about difficulties,” Kerry said. “But you have to believe in the possibilities in order to get there, and you and I believe in them and I am convinced there is a road ahead.” He did not mention that this was the road to hell.

This proves what we already know about Kerry: He is not going to let facts get in the way of his foreign policy. He is a man on a mission, and nothing is going to stop him, not even rockets from Gaza that sent Holocaust mourners in southern Israel running for bomb shelters in mid-ceremony.

But a negotiated “two-state solution” is what Kerry was hired to execute, after all — well, that, and making the world safe from climate change. That, too, is a futile endeavor, but at least the weather is neutral. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have a political-religious agenda in which Israel is not even penciled in.

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”

JERUSALEM, April 7 (UPI) — In remarks on Yad Vashem, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised Israel would defend itself against Iran perpetrating another Holocaust.

Netanyahu reaffirmed his stance that Israel will act unilaterally to strike Iran if the nation is close to creating a nuclear weapon, The Times of Israel said Sunday. The annual Israeli Holocaust remembrance offered stark historical precedent for such an attack, he said.

“Iran is warning openly about its intentions to destroy us and is working with all its might to carry it out,” Netanyahu said. “The hate against Jews hasn’t disappeared, but has morphed into a murderous hate against the Jewish state. We won’t leave our fate in the hands of others, even the best of our friends. … Here, and today, I promise — there will never be another Holocaust.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres, speaking at the same service, lamented the anti-Semitism that still exists in the world, even after an estimated 6 million European Jews were systematically killed by the Nazi regime during World War II.

“The civilized world must ask itself, how in such a short space of time after the crematoria were extinguished, after the terrible death toll that the allied powers endured to put an end to the Nazi devil, is it still possible for the leadership, like that of Iran, to openly deny the Holocaust and threaten another Holocaust,” Peres said. “Whoever ignores the threat against one nation, must know that the threat of a Holocaust against one nation is a threat of a Holocaust against all nations.”

Over the past few days it has become clear to the world that a nation’s nuclear capabilities do not guarantee that it will have peaceful intentions. On the contrary, North Korea is using its nuclear capabilities to further escalate tensions with the U.S., and Tehran is watching these events with satisfaction.

The nuclear negotiations held in Kazakhstan, between Iran and the six world powers — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — have only promoted Iran to the same status North Korea is in today — a deranged regime with nuclear capabilities. This time, the world will not be able to remain oblivious to it.

We may have become accustomed to North Korea’s belligerent rhetoric, but there isn’t one capital in the world today that is indifferent to Pyongyang’s threats. Kim Jong Un backs his statements with actions: reopening the nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, deploying ballistic missiles across his eastern border and recommending that Russia and Britain evacuate their embassies. These actions have prompted even the most serious commentators to review every possible scenario, even a nuclear attack against the U.S.

Several weeks ago, former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta admitted that Washington does not have a clear picture of the situation in North Korea. So who does? China?

China has assumed a significant role in the unfolding crisis and may very well be the key to the North Korean riddle. It seems that Beijing — Pyongyang’s babysitter, as far as the international community is concerned — can no longer keep Kim under control. This drama is unfolding in their own backyard.

The Americans are surprised by North Korea’s ability to exercise such maneuvers freely, but at some point China is likely to grow tired of these antics. China and the U.S. do not share regional interests and China also has its own problems with Japan — the Diaoyu-Senkaku island dispute in the East China Sea — so there is a method to the North Korean madness: Pyongyang is trying to play both ends against the middle.

Beijing does not want to see the North Korean regime collapse, which may result in an influx of North Korean refugees; nor does it want to see South Korea and the U.S. become even stronger allies. It therefore has to assume some responsibility in this crisis. Pyongyang may be cut off from the rest of the world, but it is not oblivious to it. Its nuclear capabilities have given it the ability to intimidate the world, and it is trying to capitalize on the differences between the regional players to get ahead.

There are many similarities between the North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues. The six powers held futile nuclear talks with North Korea as well, just as they did with Iran in Kazakhstan.

Being an optimist has its advantages. Some 20 years ago, U.S. President Bill Clinton was sure that he could begin a normalization process with North Korea. President Barack Obama would like to believe that he can normalize ties with Iran, but this game is played according to a different set of rules.