John Kerry (Sort of) Apologizes For the Apartheid Comment (Which Drew Political-Based Attacks)

Last night Secretary of State John Kerry issued a sort of apology for warning that if Israel did not make peace it would become an apartheid state. Well it wasn't really an apology, he said that he has always loved Israel, that the attacks he received for his statement were political and if he could say it again he would change the words he used.

For more than thirty years in the United States Senate, I didn’t just speak words in support of Israel, I walked the walk when it came time to vote and when it came time to fight. As Secretary of State, I have spent countless hours working with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Justice Minister Livni because I believe in the kind of future that Israel not only wants, but Israel deserves. I want to see a two state solution that results in a secure Jewish state and a prosperous Palestinian state, and I’ve actually worked for it.

I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone, particularly for partisan, political purposes, so I want to be crystal clear about what I believe and what I don’t believe.

First, Israel is a vibrant democracy and I do not believe, nor have I ever stated, publicly or privately, that Israel is an apartheid state or that it intends to become one. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that without a shred of doubt.

Second, I have been around long enough to also know the power of words to create a misimpression, even when unintentional, and if I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution. In the long term, a unitary, binational state cannot be the democratic Jewish state that Israel deserves or the prosperous state with full rights that the Palestinian people deserve. That’s what I said, and it’s also what Prime Minister Netanyahu has said. While Justice Minister Livni, former Prime Ministers Barak and Ohlmert have all invoked the specter of apartheid to underscore

Kerry's statement about Israel developing into an apartheid state drew rebuke from Barbara Boxer, Republicans and even one of James Baker's "anti-Israel Jew Boys," Aaron David Miller who said that Mr. Kerry’s comment had drawn him into an “unproductive fight with a close ally.”

“Baker and Kissinger used tough language when they thought they would not only be able to make a point, but would be able to make a difference,” Mr. Miller said of James A. Baker III and Henry A. Kissinger, both former secretaries of state.  “But Kerry’s closed-door comment was ill timed, ill advised and unwise.”

In the end, Kerry forgot one of the primary rules of American Politics; Do not use the term Nazi unless you are talking about Germany of the 1930s and 40s.  Do not talk use apartheid unless you are talking about the horrible race laws in South Africa which ended in the 1990s. And don't use the term Racism unless someone is criticizing an African-American president of the United States.

Ed Morrissey doesn't believe Kerry apologized either, read his comments here at Hot Air .