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Kerry’s Trip to the Middle East: A Failure Foretold

US Secretary of State John Kerry failed to understand that Israeli and Palestinian leaders are both currently tied to public opinions and cannot make the necessary concessions.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry makes a statement to the media regarding his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Bandar Seri Begawan July 2, 2013. Kerry said he did not have substantive discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden when the two held a two-hour meeting at an Asian security conference on Tuesday. REUTERS/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool (BRUNEI - Tags: POLITICS HEADSHOT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX119V5
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So US Secretary of State John Kerry went back to Washington empty-handed again.

Very few people were surprised by the failure of this trip. Before his flight took off so that he could deal with all the other problems weighing down on him, the US secretary of state managed to hold a brief news conference in Ramallah. Using the most noncommittal language he could muster, Kerry said that there had been some progress in the talks, and that he’d be back to try again.

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