Cruz: Kerry Demonstrated ‘Shocking Lack of Sensitity’ to Jews, Must Resign

Sen. Cruz: Sec. Kerry Should Offer President Obama His Resignation;

The President Should Accept It

Calls for resignation following Secretary Kerry’s remarks that

Israel could become an “apartheid state”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today spoke on the Senate floor to call for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s resignation following the secretary’s comments at the Trilateral Commission that Israel could become an “apartheid state” if his proposed two-state solution to the peace Israeli-Palestinian peace-process fails.

“There is no place for this word in the context of the State of Israel.  The term ‘apartheid’ means ‘apart’—different, isolated—the state of the victims of apartheid with which the Jews are all too familiar. The notion that Israel would go down that path, and so face the same condemnation that met South Africa, is unconscionable.  The United States should be aggressively asserting that Israel can never be made an apartheid nation while America exists, because America will be with Israel regardless of the status of any diplomatic process.

“The fact that Secretary Kerry sees nothing wrong with making such a statement on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day demonstrates a shocking lack of sensitivity to the incendiary and damaging nature of his rhetoric.  It is my belief that Secretary Kerry has thus proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation and the President should accept it.”  

Sen. Cruz was one of three U.S. Senators to vote against Secretary Kerry’s nomination, citing his belief that as Secretary of State, John Kerry would place what he considered to be the wishes of the international community above the national security interests of the United States.