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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday would not say the United States is at war with ISIS, telling CNN in an interview that the administration's strategy includes "many different things that one doesn't think of normally in context of war." "What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counter-terrorism operation," Kerry told CNN's Elise Labott in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. "It's going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so, but the fact is it's a major counterterrorism operation that...

Secretary of State John Kerry's speech at the groundbreaking ceremony for the U.S. Diplomacy Center in Washington, D.C. Wednesday included an intriguing aside that appeared to reference the upcoming 2016 presidential election. Kerry spoke after remarks by each of the five former secretaries of state in attendance: Henry Kissinger, James Baker, III, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, and Hillary Clinton (Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz were not present.) After extolling the accomplishments of each of the five former top diplomats, Kerry said, "Join me, all of you, in thanking five of our six living former secretaries of state... They all look...

'Stamp Out This Disease': Kerry Calls on the World to Help Defeat ISIS Secretary of State John Kerry is calling for a "much fuller response" to fight against brutal Islamist militants in Iraq, and suggested that "airstrikes alone won't defeat this enemy." Kerry — in an op-ed published in The New York Times on Friday — wrote that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) isn't satisfied wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq, and "poses a threat well beyond that region" that could include strikes in the U.S. as well as "anywhere they could manage to travel undetected."

Diplomacy: Great leadership isn't necessarily about intelligence, expertise or background. It's more about wisdom and judgment. Based on this, Americans should be very concerned about Secretary of State John Kerry. As the world melts into chaos and threats to the U.S. homeland multiply, America's top foreign policy official seems bizarrely, even dangerously, fixated on ... global warming. In remarks at the East-West Center in Honolulu on Wednesday, Kerry repeated his claim that climate change is "the biggest challenge ... we face right now." To which we respond: Can he be serious? In recent days, we've seen the establishment of a...

The State Department claimed Wednesday that they have been “looking at” developing a long-term strategy to fight ISIL in both Iraq and Syria for a year. The United States has stressed repeatedly that its current limited missions in Iraq against ISIL are not long-term solutions. “We are looking long-term at how we fight ISIL,” said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. Asked by a reporter to clarify, Harf said, “We’ve been looking at that for quite some time. That’s not new.” “We’ve been looking at that for months and months, even before the latest offenses that started in June against Mosul...

The global impact of climate change is “the biggest challenge of all that we face right now,” Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience in Hawaii Wednesday, putting an issue he feels passionately about at the center of a speech entitled “U.S. Vision for Asia-Pacific Engagement.” “The science is screaming at us,” he said. “Ask any kid in school. They understand what a greenhouse is, how it works, why we call it the greenhouse effect. They get it.”

ow badly have US-Israel relations deteriorated in recent weeks? If Israeli media reports are any indication, tensions boiled over to the point where a phone call between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ended due to "communications problems" earlier this week. Both men have not spoken since, according to the State Department. Kerry's spokesperson, Jen Psaki, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the two men have not spoken since a brief phone call over the situation in Gaza ended because of "communications problems."

Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel. The strong reaction came as top Israeli officials questioned the effort to forge the truce, accusing the U.S. and the United Nations of being naive in assuming the radical Hamas movement would adhere with its terms. The officials also blamed the Gulf state of Qatar for not forcing the militants to comply.

John Kerry is upset by heavy criticism from Israelis — left, right and center — of his recent cease-fire diplomacy. But that’s only half the story. More significant is the consternation of America’s Arab partners, starting with the president of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas was stunned that Kerry would fly off to Paris to negotiate with Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey in talks that excluded the PA and Egypt. The talks also undermined Egypt’s cease-fire proposal, which Israel had accepted and Hamas rejected (and would have prevented the vast majority of the casualties on both sides). “Kerry tried through...

WASHINGTON — Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel. Sources familiar with conversations between Netanyahu and senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say the Israeli leader advised the Obama administration “not to ever second guess me again” on the matter. The officials also said Netanyahu said he should be “trusted” on the issue and about the unwillingness of Hamas to enter into and follow through on cease-fire talks. An Israeli official said the Netanyahu government viewed...

<p>John Kerry is upset by heavy criticism from Israelis — left, right and center — of his recent ceasefire diplomacy. But that’s only half the story. More significant is the consternation of America’s Arab partners, starting with the president of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas was stunned that Kerry would fly off to Paris to negotiate with Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey in talks that excluded the PA and Egypt.</p>

Let’s just recap what happened with the abduction of an Israeli soldier this morning. The Israeli government believed the word of the Secretary of State of the United States that, via his Turkish and Qatari friends, he had obtained acceptable terms for a ceasefire with Hamas. Mr. Kerry’s flunkies even bragged about the success of his Turko-Qatari connections, chiding those who looked askance at his bromance with friends and sponsors of Hamas. What happened next – a surprise attack on Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip an hour and a half into the “ceasefire”, an abduction of a soldier...

".....From the moment he burst on the national scene in 1971 as a young Vietnam vet, his family connections and anti-war views landing him a spot testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, right straight through to today as the U.S. Secretary of State, Kerry has demonstrated repeatedly that he is unable to grasp not only serious threats to the United States and the larger world as well. What has been on display again and again in Kerry’s public career is a tone-deafness when it comes to the manifestation of evil. Unless, of course, in the style of that old...

Danny Dayan, head of the Council of Judea and Samaria, said Monday that asking Israel to stop its attacks on Hamas at this time was “a perversion of morality and diplomacy.” Israelis understand quite well, he said, that “they are fighting for their homes. No matter what we do the enemy will never be satisfied” without Israel's destruction. “We must continue fighting until our goals are reached.” Dayan was speaking in light of the heavy pressure being placed on Israel by US President Barack H Obama for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire. In his proposal, Obama said that the issue...

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration Sunday disputed reports in Israeli and Arab media suggesting that Secretary of State John Kerry had tried to push a Gaza ceasefire plan promoted by Hamas-supporting Turkey and Qatar, at the expense of proposals put forward earlier by Egypt and backed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. In a conference call with Israeli reporters, a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity disputed reports that a plan, which was flatly rejected by the Israeli cabinet on Friday afternoon, amounted to...

John Kerry has almost certainly been called worse things than a space alien--particularly by Israel´s Right-wing camp, where contempt for the US secretary of state and his failed peacemaking efforts is unabashed. But when the insult is levelled by the previously supportive Haaretz newspaper, standard-bearer of the country´s liberal-Left, it may be time for him--and by extension, President Barack Obama--to take notice. The withering description was coined by Barack Ravid, the paper´s well-informed and normally restrained diplomatic editor, to describe Mr Kerry´s attempts at brokering a truce to the bloody conflict in Gaza--rejected by Israel amid widespread mockery.

Kerry has messed up the relationship with Egypt, just like he has with Israel. Egypt and Israel are against Hamas and radical Muslim Brotherhood. Obama gives money to the Hamas, and talks with Egypts enemies Turkey and Qatar. Egypt is closer to Israel than America in fighting Hamas.

Two top government watchdogs in Washington D.C. slammed a key aide to Secretary of State John Kerry for using a private Gmail account to conduct official government business, calling it “the worst possible practice in trying to maintain transparency” and speculating whether this was “how the Benghazi talking points were developed.” The Daily Caller reported on Monday that Glen Johnson, a strategic communications advisor to Kerry, fabricated a claim about the number of times Kerry appeared on “Fox News Sunday” while attempting to force TheDC to change a report which said that the secretary had “shut out” Fox News reporter...

Does a “quieter” North Korea represent progress in dealing with the rogue state’s threat to peace? On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. was “moving forward” with efforts to denuclearize North Korea and pointed to coordination with China, most recently on Mr. Kerry’s visit to Beijing. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Mr. Kerry also cited a “quieter” North Korea since his previous visit to Beijing in April 2013 as evidence of progress on restraining Pyongyang’s aggression.

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Richard Stengel gave a peculiar apology to outraged Twitter users on Sunday after he tweeted #UnitedForGaza to his 15,000 followers. In a tweet directed to the State Department, Mr. Stengel said, “Critical for a full, credible and unimpeded intl investigation of crash. Urge Russia to honor it’s [sic] commitment,” Twitchy first reported. After receiving swift backlash, the tweet was deleted, and Mr. Stengel sent out a terse explanation. “Earlier tweet with wrong hashtag was a mistake. My bad,” he said. (Snip) Twitter users weren’t buying Mr. Stengel’s apology.