Former secretary of state John Kerry is venting his frustrations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a new book slated for release this month.
According to excerpts obtained by Jewish Insider, a Washington newsletter, Barack Obama’s top diplomat began losing trust in Netanyahu in 2014 during Israel’s last operation against Hamas in Gaza, when he claims Netanyahu began strategically leaking to the press against him.
An “element of personal trust had been lost” at that time, he writes.
“‘We were in the middle of negotiating [a cease-fire] based on your input. Now I see it in the press? This is outrageous,’” Kerry recalled telling Netanyahu. “‘The humanitarian cease-fire was your idea. And now you leak this document to make it sound like I am trying to advance Hamas’s position?’”
The book, titled Every Day is Extra, catalogues Kerry’s tenure at the State Department throughout Obama’s second term in office, including his efforts to negotiate an end to Iran’s nuclear program.
Kerry writes that Netanyahu gave him two reasons why he was skeptical about entering peace talks with the Palestinians.
“I’m willing to give this effort a try,” he allegedly told Kerry, ”but there are two things you should know.
“First, everyone in this region lies all the time,” he said, and “second, the most I can do may be less than the least Abbas could ever accept.”
Kerry’s peace talks ended in failure in 2014.