WASHINGTON, D.C.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday brushed aside Israeli criticism of his efforts to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, saying that he will continue to pursue the initiative because Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Premier, had asked him to do so.
“I've taken hits before in politics - I'm not worried about that,” Kerry said while speaking to reporters at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart. “This is not about me.”
Kerry said that he is not going to worry about personal attacks, and that U.S. President Barack Obama and the international community “have it right” when they urge the parties to address the underlying causes of the ongoing violence at a negotiating table rather than on a battlefield.
He said that resorting to violence would “invite more violence and perhaps a greater downward spiral which would be much more difficult to recover from.”
Kerry returned on Saturday night from Paris and the Middle East, where the U.S., Egypt, Turkey and other partners attempted to negotiate a lasting ceasefire in the run-up to Eid, the celebration marking the end of Ramadan.
The draft proposal for a ceasefire that the U.S. sent to Israel on Friday, and that was unanimously rejected the same day by Israel’s security cabinet, was leaked to the press over the weekend in a move that State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said “surprised” and “disappointed” the U.S.
The document was not a finalized proposal, according to Psaki. It has nonetheless drawn the ire of critics in Israel with a very senior Israeli official telling Haaretz, the Israeli daily, that it was a “strategic terrorist attack.”
Kerry insisted, however, that his efforts were done at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu himself said to me, ‘can you try to get a humanitarian cease-fire for this period of time?’ And if it weren’t for his commitment to it, obviously the president of the United States and I would not be trying to make this effort,” he said.
“Now either I take his commitment at face value or someone is playing a different game here, and I hope that’s not the fact.”
Since July 7, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip – from air, land and sea – with devastating bombardments with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire from the strip.
Israel claims that the offensive aims at halting rocket fire from the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the country rose to 1158 on Tuesday, according to the Health Ministry.
At least 56 Israelis – 53 soldiers and three civilians – have been killed since the hostilities began.
Israel's military operation, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.
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