Top US official pans Israeli criticism of Kerry

Security adviser Susan Rice unleashes series of tweets, calling ‘personal attacks’ on diplomat ‘unfounded and unacceptable’

BY YOEL GOLDMAN February 4, 2014,

US National Security Advisor Susan Rice (photo credit: AP/Craig Ruttle/File)

White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice lashed out via her Twitter account Monday night at Israeli criticism of US Secretary of State John Kerry and his efforts toward brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Rice called personal attacks in Israel directed at the secretary “totally unfounded and unacceptable.”

Kerry has come under fire by right-wing Israeli politicians for warning over the weekend that Israel faces the serious threat of a widespread boycott and delegitimization campaign. Last month, comments by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon were published in which he called Kerry “inexplicably obsessive” and “messianic” and lambasted security arrangements drawn up by the secretary, saying his West Bank security proposal was “not worth the paper it is printed on” and would not provide security for Israel.

In a series of tweets, Rice wrote that “John Kerry’s record of support for Israel’s security and prosperity [is] rock solid.” She also said the US government “has been clear and consistent that we reject efforts to boycott or delegitimize Israel.”

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Kerry said that Israel faces an “increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up. People are very sensitive to it. There are talk of boycotts and other kinds of things.”

Related