Susan Rice Really Likes Shimon Peres

Rice speaking at Peres’s ‘Facing Tomorrow’ conference yesterday.

Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images

This week, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, is in Israel, doing what diplomats do, which is not saying anything when you don’t have anything nice to say. Yesterday she met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who subsequently released a vague statement thanking Rice for a “very friendly” meeting and for the Obama Administration’s help fighting the allegations of war crimes leveled in the U.N.’s recent Goldstone report but saying nothing about a resumption of peace negotiations. Next Rice went to a big, fancy conference hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres and delivered a speech in which she didn’t mention Netanyahu but explained in great detail what an “inspiration and hero” Peres is. “I want to extend America’s deepest thanks for everything you do to move Israel and the world toward lasting security and peace,” she began, and went on to credit Peres with helping “bring Israel into being,” working with American presidents back to Kennedy, and even with helping pioneer the development of electric cars. (No, seriously!) “As President Peres always reminds us, being serious about peace means taking risks for peace,” she said. “We know what is holding us back: short-term, short-sighted definitions of self-interest.” Wonder who she could be talking about?

U.S. Envoy: Lip Service for Mideast Peace Not Enough [AP]
Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice [State.gov]