Z1287  Kerry Was Obama’s Envoy to the Muslim Brothers and Hamas

By: Yori Yanover

Published: December 23rd, 2012

<img width="395" height="244" src="http://www.jewishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/kerry-egypt.jpg" class="attachment-395x395 wp-post-image" alt="Senator John Kerry visiting Cairo&#039;s Tahrir Square, March 20, 2011." title="Senator John Kerry visiting Cairo&#039;s Tahrir Square, March 20, 2011." align="left" style="padding-right:5px;" /> 

Senator John Kerry visiting Cairo's Tahrir Square, March 20, 2011.

On Friday afternoon, President Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as secretary of state. "John has played a central role in every major foreign policy debate for nearly 30 years," Obama told the press at White House. "As we turn the page on a decade of war, he understands that we’ve got to harness all elements of American power and ensure that they’re working together – diplomatic and development, economic and political, military and intelligence – as well as the power of our values which inspire so many people around the world."

The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Kerry is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and should be easily approved by that same body.

But if Senators who consider themselves friends of Israel objected stubbornly to the appointment of Ambassador Susan Rice to succeed Secretary Clinton, they should be practically throwing themselves at the committee chamber's doors to block Kerry's nomination.

Simply put, Kerry is an Arabist. Except that while in the past an Arabist meant you promoted the view that the U.S. should favor Saudi interests over those of Israel – pretty much the Dept. of State's fundamental policy – Kerry's Arabism tends to favor the more extremist Arabs.

As such, Senator Kerry served as a reliable go-between for Obama in his developing relationship with the Muslim Brothers.

Back in June, 2009, Khaled Hamza, editor of the Muslim Brotherhood website, told reporters that 10 members of the Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc received official invitations to attend Obama’s speech at Al Azhar University in Cairo.

Also in 2009, the Egyptian daily Almasry Alyoum reported on an Obama meeting with U.S. and European-based representatives of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood insisted that the meeting be publicized, and stated that they had shared with the president their support for democracy and the war on terror.

According to Alyoum, Brotherhood members told Obama that, once they took power in Egypt, they would abide by all the agreements Egypt had signed with foreign countries, meaning the peace treaty with Israel.

At some point, the Muslim Brotherhood came up with the idea of a “renaissance project,” comprising short-, mid- and long-term visions for Egypt’s administration, education program, health problems and economy.

It is unclear whether the project was conceived independently by the young professionals and technocrats at the second leadership tier of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brothers parliamentary entity—or was the brainchild of the White House, which has been painfully aware of the miserable conditions of the majority of Egyptians under Hosni Mubarak's rule—or both. But it's more than conceivable that the Obama Administration had been plotting with the Brotherhood years before the first Egyptian yelled out the first slogan in Tahrir Square.

In 2011, before anyone knew for sure that the old regime was done for, the Brotherhood tasked Khairat al-Shater, a deputy to the movement's boss, Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, with preparing the Renaissance project. Egypt Independent reported at the time that al-Shater was hiring consultants from Turkey, Malaysia, South Africa and Singapore, in addition to Egyptian experts, to devise the project.

The Independent's source said a large budget had been allocated to this project, which would capitalize on Singapore’s experience in improving its administration, South Africa’s experience in creating a national dialogue, and Turkey and Malaysia’s experience in encouraging investment, achieving development, and improving its educational system and economy.

Any guesses as to where the unspecified "large budget" had come from?

In May of this year, Al Ahram reported about Kerry's meeting with Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi. The Brotherhood was on its way to capturing power in Egypt, and Obama was sending his most trusted man to make sure things were working according to plan.

Khaled Kazzaz, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, told Al Ahram at the time: “The visit comes in the context of the U.S. government’s concern over Egypt’s democratic transition, witnessing the evolution of the political scene in the transitional phase, becoming familiar with the FJP’s presidential candidate and reviewing the renaissance project.”

Practically since the beginning of Obama's term in office, the Mobarak regime was complaining about U.S. involvement in fomenting revolution in Egypt. But there's a big difference between keeping in touch with opposition leaders in a given country, and actually plotting to unseat a government. Add to that the idea of what seems like a nation building project, and the emerging image of President Obama starts to match the worst nightmares of some of his voters.

One of the men behind the Renaissance Project is Essam al-Haddad, a member of the Brotherhood's business association, created to attract investment in Egypt’s economy. He is head of the Office of the President; and member of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Office. With a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Birmingham, England, he has been influential in the Brotherhood’s outreach to the West, according to the washington Institute. He met with U.S. assistant secretary of state Michael Posner in January 2012, and organized the Freedom and Justice Party’s participation in the Carnegie Endowment’s conference on democratic change in North Africa, held in Washington in April 2012. At the same time, literally, he became Muhammad Morsi’s campaign manager and, in early May, 2012, accompanied him to Alexandria to meet with prominent Salafist Sheikhs.

Besides his close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, Senator Kerry also knows the ins and outs of Gaza. Back in February, 2009, Foreign Relations Chairman Kerry was touring the devastation in Gaza after operation Cast Lead, and met with officials from the UN Works Relief Agency, the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza. According to CNN, during the visit "Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas passed Sen. John Kerry a letter for President Obama."

Frederick Jones, the committee's communications director, told CNN at the end of Kerry's meeting with UNRWA chief Karen Abu Zayed that "she handed [Kerry] a letter addressed to the president of the United States along with other materials."

Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones said the senator was not aware that the letter was from Hamas when he accepted it from Abu Zayed, and only heard media reports of its origin, which prompted him to relinquish it. The Israeli embassy commented that Kerry should not have acted as mailman for a group labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States.

But that's what Kerry has done over the past four years. Oh, and there's his immortal Wikileaks statement about Israel returning to Golan Heights to Assad, who is now "ready for change."

It reads like an Onion item:

In November, 2010, a U.S. State Department cable leaked on the Wikileaks website, quoted Kerry as saying he believed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu needs to compromise and work the return of the Golan Heights to Syria into a formula for peace. Kerry made the statement to the Emir of Qatar in a February meeting between the two.

Kerry was referring to the Emir’s position that peace between Israel and the Palestinians could only be attempted once a Syria-Israel peace had been achieved, and that the Golan Heights was paramount in attaining that peace.

Kerry then added that he believes Syrian President Bashar Assad wants change, but that he must compromise and act like more of a statesman in order to attain it.

Also, Assad should try to avoid the kind of change that results in an abrupt cessation of breathing due to the adverse effect of a noose.

As Secretary of State we should expect more of the same, including the kind of in-depth judgment that would have made Israel give up one of its most precious strategic assets to a mass murderer about to be ousted in a bloody civil war. And including the subterranean efforts to undermine old allies of the U.S., replacing them with enemies of the West and of Israel. And including the efforts to legitimize Hamas as the real Palestinian authority – because Kerry has stated on numerous occasions that he does not believe Abbas has got what it takes. 

About the Author: Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. Now he's here.