Lucy Schouten tells us that Israel did not like Secretary of State John Kerry’s ceasefire proposal and made no secret of their displeasure.

Well, no kidding.

By my count, there have been at least five ceasefires all of which Hamas has broken. The difference between the other negotiated ceasefires and Kerry’s is that the Secretary of State gives Hamas a lifeline of legitimacy. Hamas’ raison d’etre always has and always will be the extermination of Israel.

Yet Israel isn’t the only one that didn’t like Kerry’s ceasefire. As Lucy notes, Kerry negotiated the ceasefire in Egypt. Curiously, she doesn’t mention that the Egyptians didn’t exactly welcome Kerry with open arms. In fact, President Sisi’s security detail made Kerry go through a metal detector before welcoming him into his office. 

Consider what Charles Krauthammer had to say the other day:

There’s a miracle happening in the Middle East which is a tacit alliance between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority of all people, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Gulf Arabs, all of them are our friends who want to see Hamas squeezed, who supported the Arab league, supported the Egyptian peace plan and this entirely undermines [it].

The Arab world also didn’t particularly care for Kerry’s negotiations in Paris with Turkey and Qatar either. Indeed, the Palestinian Authority went as far as to accuse Kerry of “appeasing” Turkey and Qatar who are Hamas’ principle backers along with Iran.

So while Israel is understandably furious at Kerry’s meddling, for once it isn’t alone in its anger.

Which brings me to this question. If the Arab world is abandoning Hamas then why is the Obama Administration rushing to embrace it?