Last night Texas Senator Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor to call for Secretary of State John Kerry's resignation over his closed door comments about Israel becoming an "apartheid" state if its leaders don't come to a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
“There is no place for this word in the context of the State of Israel. The term ‘apartheid’ means ‘apart’—different, isolated—the state of the victims of apartheid with which the Jews are all too familiar. The notion that Israel would go down that path, and so face the same condemnation that met South Africa, is unconscionable. The United States should be aggressively asserting that Israel can never be made an apartheid nation while America exists, because America will be with Israel regardless of the status of any diplomatic process," Cruz said in a statement. “The fact that Secretary Kerry sees nothing wrong with making such a statement on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day demonstrates a shocking lack of sensitivity to the incendiary and damaging nature of his rhetoric. It is my belief that Secretary Kerry has thus proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation and the President should accept it.”
Although Cruz was one of just three Senators to vote against Kerry's nomination, he isn't alone in his criticism of Kerry's comments. Democrats are also piling on.
Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and any linkage between Israel and apartheid is nonsensical and ridiculous.
— Sen. Barbara Boxer (@SenatorBoxer) April 28, 2014
President Obama has not condemned Kerry's comments.
