Israel’s Yesha [settlers] Council has posted online a deliberately disrespectful spoof depicting America’s top diplomat – played by an actor resembling John Kerry – riding a camel and making a series of preposterous statements that belittle his understanding of the region’s complexities.
At one point, the Mr Kerry character is seen down-playing the importance of the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, in Jerusalem’s old city.
“Dividing Jerusalem is not an easy thing,” the actor says. “We must realise it is holy to all religions – Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Klingons and Hobbits. But what I’m saying is: ‘why fight over an old wall?’
I’ll build you a brand new wall, close to the beach.”
A woman with an American accent is then seen telling him: “I think you should go home, where you belong, and stay there.”
In response, Susan Rice, the US national security adviser best known for claiming the Benghazi attacks were not the result of a terrorist attack, issued a series of tweets on Tuesday denouncing the criticism.
“Personal attacks in Israel directed at Sec Kerry totally unfounded and unacceptable,” Ms Rice wrote in one tweet. Another said: “U.S. Govt has been clear and consistent that we reject efforts to boycott or delegitimize Israel.”
Dani Dayan, the Yesha Council’s international envoy, said the video aimed to “highlight the infeasibility of John Kerry’s proposals, which are at best unrealistic and at worst a danger to the State of Israel.”
It was released after several high-ranking Israeli politicians launched apparently coordinated attacks on Mr Kerry for warning at a security conference in Munich last weekend that the Jewish state faced the risk of an economic boycott if no peace deal was reached with the Palestinians.
Naftali Bennett, the industry minister and leader of the far-Right Jewish Home party, accused Mr Kerry of acting as a “mouthpiece for anti-Semitic boycott threats”.
This is hilarious, in my opinion… Is that bad?