this is an unusually transparent briefing by the state department, centered around the need to do some damage control in a situation where they were caught a little off guard by netanyahu in his characteristic conniving behaviour. it's the rare situation where the truth is the best lie.

i don't think kerry went down there with the motives of really solving anything. and, the fact that he took a draft that had already been rejected and put his name on it largely underscores the point - he was looking to get a political bounce for playing a role in something that he really played no role in. but, american leaders do this all of the time. and, when you're the empire you can do that sort of thing. you can maybe be cynical about it but, in the end, hey, he could have stopped the bombs for a little while.

what i'm reading from the israeli reaction is that netanyahu wasn't about to let that happen - and for reasons of internal domestic american politics, rather than anything to do with his own region. this would not have happened if it was a republican secretary of state. but, netanyahu was looking to prevent the democrats from getting any kind of bump, and instead make them look bad to the republican base - with his absurd accusations around the airport closure (which, again, was clearly meant to prevent reporters from entering the region while kerry was there) and his subsequent "rejection" and leak. if you follow the fox news narrative that matt lee was pushing, it's actually entirely consistent and, if not rational, at least logical, in their usual warped sort of way.

this creates a rather dramatic problem for the united states. not for john kerry. not for obama. for the united states. this is a type of interference that a superpower like america just can't tolerate from a peon like israel.

i have a suggestion: if netanyahu wants to involve himself that deeply in american politics then america should annex israel as a state, and start building american settlements.