Senator John Kerry (D-MA), chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, interview with This Week, June 6, 2010:
“Israel has every right in the world to make certain that weapons are not being smuggled in after the thousands of rockets that have been fired on it from Gaza. And Israel has every right in the world, as recognized by the international community—because it is not just Israel conducting this blockade; it is Israel and Egypt. So you begin that Israel has this right to protect itself. Now, that said, Gaza is a—is a humanitarian challenge, and Israel understands that. …
“[I]t is in Israel’s interest in its security and national defense interest, to deal more effectively with the Gaza situation. Right now, you have Hamas building a seaside resort using goods that are smuggled through the Rafah tunnels, while the United Nations entity in Gaza has 40,000 kids on a waiting list to go to school, and they’re trying to build 15 schools this year. That is not in Israel’s interest, in our judgment. And so I believe we need to work with Israel diligently in these next few days and get those goods moving. But we also need to remember that—that Iran is trying to foment a next intifada. There’s nothing they’d like more than to create a violent explosion. And the tension is real enough that there is the threat of war in the Middle East. We need to work extra-hard in these next days to bring the parties together and to try to move the proximity talks to final status discussions as fast as possible. Nothing would do more to address the concerns expressed by General Petraeus, to build trust and to diminish the ability of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and others to cause mischief than to get to the final status issues as fast as possible.”
