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John Kerry Discusses Newly Discovered Jewish Roots

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Secretary of state, who only learned his grandparents were Jews in 2004, says he understands Israelis’ reluctance to sign a deal
Secretary of state, who only learned his grandparents were Jews in 2004, says he understands Israelis’ reluctance to sign a deal
Secretary of State John Kerry has recently stated that his feelings toward Israel changed about ten years ago upon learning that he had Jewish grandparents.

“It’s a connection that’s deep. I lost a great-uncle in the Holocaust and a great-aunt. I never knew that until then. To learn that, after years of being passionate about ‘never again,’ with respect to the Holocaust, and then to understand that you are biologically and personally connected to that, is very moving,” he said in an interview aired on Thursday by Israel’s Channel 2, the Times of Israel reported on Wednesday, February 20.

“Israel itself has a special connection to me, not just because of that personal, now-known connection, but more importantly because of the amazing journey of the Jewish people,” he said during the interview, which was reportedly conducted at the State Department last Tuesday. “And now I’ve learned that, I have got a better sense of that.”

Kerry said that he first found out about his Jewish ancestry in 2004 while running for president against George W. Bush. Both of Kerry’s father’s parents were born Jews but converted to Christianity as a result of anti-Semitism, according to the Times of Israel. He said his grandparents changed their name from Cohen to Kerry when they immigrated to the United States.

Ilana Dayan, who interviewed the secretary of state, asked Kerry “whether he felt that Israelis were still defined by their tragedies to the extent that those events made them hesitant to take the “leap of faith” necessary to withdraw from the West Bank and agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state, Kerry answered in the affirmative,” the Times of Israel reported.

“But,” he added, “here is what I want to emphasize: I think my job is to try to help create a situation where the realities of the agreement are such that it’s not such a leap of faith. I don’t want this to be a leap of faith. I want this to be a leap of reason. A leap of rationality and of choice, based on a very understandable and tangible set of guaranties about security and other things.”

If that could be achieved, Kerry continued, “then we take some of the emotion away… even though it will be for some always a huge emotion, because some people have very different views about greater Judea and Samaria — I know all of that. But I also know that over 70 percent of the people of Israel believe in a two-state solution.”

The secretary of state said that he at times can spend hours on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even said that he understands the prime minister. But Kerry did hesitate to say whether he believes that Netanyahu would agree to the kind of concessions required by a peace agreement. “If we’ve answered all of the challenges of security for Israel, if he has secured the nation state of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, if he has secured recognition and secured the refugee issue — properly dissolved — I hope he will,” Kerry said.

Netanyahu’s primary concern is the security of Israeli civilians, Kerry stressed. “I have said this to [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas: The primary issue for any Israeli is to know that if they make an agreement, they are safer and stronger because of the agreement than they were before they made it. And that goes contrary to past experience in pulling out of Lebanon and pulling out of Gaza.”

During the interview, Kerry hinted that settlers might not need to relocate under the terms of any future peace deal. Asked about the personal price that a settler might have to pay when required to leave his home as a result of an accord, Kerry stated that he was not sure this would be necessary.

“I have no argument with anyone in Israel who says that no deal is better than a bad deal. I say that myself,” he said. “I’m not in the business of trying to put together a bad deal.”

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