John Kerry: Israel Could Be Next Vietnam

At the Daily Caller, Jamie Weinstein spots the greatest Secretary of State America has ever had since Hillary Clinton playing — what else — the Vietnam card (say, did you know he served there?) to defend his spineless record. Or as the headline on Weinstein’s article notes, “Kerry to Israeli critics: I’ve been ‘attacked before by people using real bullets:'”

CNN’s Jake Tapper presented Kerry with an opportunity to respond to Bennett and other Israeli critics during an interview Wednesday.

“My comments need to be properly represented, not distorted. I did not do anything except cite what other people are talking about as a problem,” Kerry said. ”But I also have always opposed boycotts. I have 100 percent voting record in support of Israel for 29 years in the United States Senate. Unfortunately, there are some people in Israel and in Palestine and in the Arab World and around the world that don’t support the peace process.”

“Israel needs to understand we will always stand by its security needs,” he continued. “But no one should distort what we’re doing or saying because they’re opposed to the peace process or don’t like two states or whatever. And, you know, words — I have to tell you, my friend, I’ve been, quote, attacked before by people using real bullets, not words, and I am not going to be intimidated.

Really? Those real bullets in Vietnam intimidated Kerry so much that he developed a case of Stockholm Syndrome that was so powerful, it was as if it were raging through his nervous system in the manner of Genghis Khan. Other than Kerry’s reflective tendency t0 mention Vietnam in virtually every sentence he utters, that seems an odd choice of phrase for the old Winter Soldier to utter.

But then, this isn’t the first time that Kerry has compared Israel to Vietnam. At the start of the year, the State Department quoted their boss as saying, during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu:

On a personal level, last month I traveled to Vietnam on my first visit there as Secretary of State. And the transformation in our relationship – I was a young soldier who fought there – the transformation in our relationship is proof that as painful as the past can be, through hard work of diplomacy history’s adversaries can actually become partners for a new day and history’s challenges can become opportunities for a new age.

As Aaron Lerner wrote in response at Behind the News in Israel:

A reminder of what happened in Vietnam:

#1. A peace agreement was engineered by then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

#2. Henry Kissinger received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

#3. The agreement fails.

#4. South Vietnam falls as American forces retreat.

#5. The “boat people” – a flood of refugees from South Vietnam fleeing for their lives.

Now what is the message to Israel?

The message is that John Kerry served in Vietnam, and therefore all nations are to be compared to Vietnam, just to remind anyone left who didn’t know that John Kerry served in Vietnam. (Of course, were Israel to collapse like North Vietnam did as a result of the Democrat Congressional Class of ’74 withholding American aide — well, as before, I doubt Kerry would lose too much sleep over that.)

In other news of far leftists being driven round the bend by Israel’s mere existence — this just in: “Roger Waters is still a creepy, overrated, bitter old bigot,” the Eye on a Crazy Planet blog posits, noting that “One of the wonderful things about Israel is that it that brings out the worst in creepy old bigots and lets the world see the awfulness that was otherwise hidden behind their facades.” Read the whole thing.

Related: “J. William Kerry.”