Antony Blinken:
The sign of Blinken’s weakness first became apparent to some US experts in foreign affairs after the evasion of Ukraine. Two weeks after the Russian invasion was halted by fierce resistance from Ukrainians, the US, which had previously supported Zelensky leaving the country, had a sudden change of heart and renewed trust in Zelensky’s leadership abilities. They believed he could not only withstand Russia’s offensive but also repel it from his country’s territories. As a show of solidarity and a public display of Biden’s confidence in Ukrainian leadership, the administration contemplated sending Blinken to Kiev. However, many opposed this step, fearing Russia might view his presence in wartime Kiev as a sign of weakness rather than a show of US strength. One such expert suggested on MSNBC that the US should send Lloyd Austin alone or with Blinken as a symbol of US power. His reasoning was that sending an imposing figure like Austin, rather than the diminutive Blinken, would convey an unequivocal message to Putin that the US is not only superior in terms of weapons and manpower but also physically intimidating.
Height has historically played a role in delicate diplomatic dances and has been a crucial component in psychological warfare — the first element in the art of intimidation. For instance, Ron DeSantis is alleged to have worn custom-made high heels to gain a few inches over towering figures like Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley on the debate stage.
Biden heeded the advice of the experts and dispatched Austin and Blinken together to Ukraine. The result was that Russia was so terrified that even Biden himself boarded a train to Kiev a week later. From that day, Biden should have made Austin the Secretary of State. But he didn’t, and the world has been suffering ever since, now paying a heavy price.
In July this year, during one of the deadliest and most frightening days in the war in Ukraine, and the balloon incident, Blinken landed in Beijing to hold meetings with Chinese officials, including Xi.
There was no red carpet to welcome Blinken, and only a small number of officials had gathered at the airport, largely due to his stature as a man, signaling the US’s dwindling influence in the world. Human rights activist Jennifer Zeng noted in a tweet that “only the U.S. ambassador and Yang Tao, the director of the North America and Oceania Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (a much lower-level #CCP official) were present to welcome him at the airport. No red carpet, no welcoming crowds, no waist drum performance… This, according to Chinese standards and culture, is a deliberate humiliation.”
To add insult to injury, Blinken had to wait longer than usual before he was allowed to see Xi. He stood next to Xi, not only shorter but also visibly meek, with a timid look in his eyes. It was a depressing image and a sad day for those who had the privilege to witness great US Secretaries of State always take the center of attention on the world stage, towering over presidents and heads of state.
Blinken’s display of weakness, both physically and mentally, not only emboldened the Chinese but also Netanyahu and his Kahanist coalition. Blinken rushed to Israel following the horrific attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7th. With the country engulfed in shock, pain, and anger, Blinken listened to Netanyahu and assured him of unconditional US support for any decision he made.
Netanyahu decided to seek biblical-style revenge and declared Jewish holly war by invoking the Amalekites — the Jewish equivalent of infidels on whom Fatwas can be issued — to justify their annihilation. Netanyahu declared Palestinians, including children, women, as legitimate targets. After three weeks of a medieval siege and barbaric bombardment, Netanyahu had killed over 5,000 Palestinian babies, with many more unaccounted for still under the rubble.
On a subsequent visit to Israel, Blinken, as a weak man, naively assumed that Netanyahu, having spilled enough blood already, might be open to a pause in the violence. His entire journey from DC to Israel appeared to hinge on this assumption, which proved to be ill-founded. Without a prior strategy to address the reality in Gaza and the unfolding human catastrophe, Blinken flew to Tel Aviv.
Upon landing, his weakness and lack of decisiveness were immediately apparent to Netanyahu. Netanyahu, a seasoned and shrewd leader, took advantage of Blinken’s vulnerability. He held Blinken in his office for hours, in what was officially termed a meeting but felt more like a hostage situation. When Blinken was eventually released, he held a press conference, visibly shaken, and repeated the same message he had delivered on October 8th before over 10,000 Palestinians, 75% of them babies, were massacred: “Israel has the right to defend itself.”
While Blinken read these words from the teleprompter, Israel’s fighter jets were flying over Gaza, dropping bombs on ambulances carrying injured Palestinians. Instead of brokering a humanitarian pause for Palestinians to bury their dead children and retrieve corpses from the rubble, Blinken’s weakness led to even more death and destruction. Now, many Palestinians are left wondering how their lives might have been if he hadn’t come.
While many observers are left wondering what would have happened if Blinken possessed even a fraction of the backbone shown by figures like John Foster Dulles, Henry Kissinger, John Kerry, or even Condoleezza Rice. If Blinken had demonstrated a fraction of their resolve, he might have exerted some pressure on Israel or at least made an appeal on behalf of a less-than-vigilant President Biden, whose approval ratings plummeted following his shortsighted embrace of Netanyahu.
John Foster Dulles
Regrettably, the region has witnessed many dark and bleak moments like this, but genocides were always averted thanks to strong US Secretaries of State. One such critical moment occurred in 1953 when the Middle East teetered on the brink of a violent disaster. Israel’s actions were escalating tensions with both Egypt and Jordan, and the situation threatened to engulf the region in chaos. As always, Israel claimed to be defending itself from irrational Arabs who purportedly sought to annihilate all Jews and drive them into the Mediterranean Sea.
To assess the truth and de-escalate the situation, US President Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, dispatched John Foster Dulles. Dulles conducted a historic visit to several Arab states and Israel in May 1953, marking the first time an American Secretary of State had visited Israel. During his brief visit, Dulles had crucial meetings, with the most important one being held with Ben Gurion, the Prime Minister of Israel. In this meeting, Dulles was resolute in conveying America’s stance to the Israelis. He made it clear that there were limits to what the US would support and that Israel should expect to be treated like its neighbors. Upon returning home, Dulles delivered a speech in which he emphasized the need to address the deep anger in the Arab world caused by Israeli actions. He also stressed that the previous administration’s one-sided pro-Israel policy needed to change, hinting at greater pressure on Israel to make concessions for the sake of establishing lasting peace in the region.
In the years that followed, the United States rejected Israel’s requests for loans, ceased arms supplies, and played a role in passing condemnatory UN resolutions against Israel. Dulles’s resolute stance worked, and Israel was compelled to choose between isolation from the rest of the world or temporarily backing down. It chose the latter.
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger, despite not being physically superior to Blinken, possessed superior intellect and diplomatic acumen, which he used shrewdly to pressure Israel when necessary and engage with them when they deserved it. Kissinger faced crises similar to the one at hand. For instance, when Israel imposed a siege on Egyptian soldiers in Sinai, akin to the current situation in Gaza, cutting off their access to water, electricity, food, and external assistance. Instead of appearing helpless, as Blinken did on Saturday, Kissinger exerted intense pressure on Israel and compelled them to lift the siege, resolving the issue through dialogue rather than resorting to medieval and barbaric means.
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice, the first Black female Secretary of State, was a strong, formidable woman with both physical presence and a strong personality. She often outshone the Sheikhs and extremist settlers in the region. While she was, to some extent, kept on a tight leash by President Bush and his neoconservative advisers, Rice was bold and unafraid to consistently assert herself, particularly when it came to dealing with crises. She pushed Israeli leaders to make “hard decisions,” including stopping settlement construction and displacements of Palestinians, which she viewed as obstacles to President Bush’s vision of a Two-State solution. She made it clear that failure to address these issues would result in an unpleasant response from the United States.
In 2006, Rice applied significant pressure on the Israelis to reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority that would open Gaza to the outside world for the first time. The agreement, which was later reneged upon by Israel and never fully implemented, included provisions such as the construction of an airport and seaport for Gaza, potentially transforming the strip into something akin to Singapore. However, due to Israeli rejectionist attitudes and half-hearted commitments, the deal never came to fruition. As a result, the strip instead became a hotbed for improvised extremists and violent groups, all with one shared aim: breaking free from the “the open-air prison.”
John Kerry
Among the former Secretaries of State, at least in recent times, none has been as bold and resolute in the face of uncompromising and at times vengeful Israeli leaders as John Kerry. The former Democratic Party nominee for the 2004 election against George W. Bush became Obama’s chief diplomat during the second term of his presidency. He took over after Hillary Clinton stepped down to focus on her 2016 general election aspirations.
Kerry proved to be a formidable advocate for President Obama, enduring racist slurs, unrelenting attacks, accusations of being anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and media leaks from Netanyahu and his Kahanist coalition forces, which consumed him during the last two years of Obama’s presidency. Kerry not only stood up to Netanyahu and his hardline cabinet ministers, but he also banged the table and challenged them to defy him.
He made it clear to them that the US had grown tired of their endless excuses, delays, and evasive tactics in the peace process. Up to that point, Kerry genuinely believed that the Israelis were interested in a peaceful resolution with the Palestinians. However, after numerous visits to Tel Aviv and Ramallah, and extensive discussions with Mahmoud Abbas and Netanyahu, he reached the same conclusion that others before him had come to and those who followed him later discovered: The obstacle to peace was not the Palestinians but the Israeli government.
Kerry said, “The Palestinians have done an extraordinary job of remaining committed to nonviolence. When the intifada took place [in 2015], they adhered to non-violence in the West Bank.” This assessment was later reaffirmed by Donald Trump, who described the Palestinian leaders as peaceful and likened Abbas to a father figure.
However, Kerry faced a stark reality when he realized that “the majority of the cabinet currently in the Israeli government has publicly declared they are not ever for a Palestinian state.” Faced with this unpleasant realization, Kerry had only two options: walk away from the region altogether and declare it a lost cause or attempt to persuade the Israelis to be reasonable.
He pleaded to Netanyahu to cease building more settlements and reach a peace deal, not just for Israel’s sake but for America’s, which had provided Israel with everything it requested, only to see its requests constantly rejected in an adversarial manner. The Israelis, however, looked him in the eye and firmly said NO. Settlement construction activities accelerated, and the anti-Palestinian state rhetoric grew louder, eroding the prospects for peace with each passing day.
With his time as Secretary of State drawing to a close and with the specter of a hardline, pro-settler president picked by Trump waiting in the wings, Kerry took his case to the United Nations. The resolution passed with a 14–0 vote, and the packed chamber erupted in applause and cheers when the US ambassador, Samantha Power, abstained. The resolution declared that Israel’s settlements on Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had “no legal validity” and demanded a halt to “all Israeli settlement activities,” labeling them a “flagrant violation” of international law.
Kerry offered a robust defense of the US decision to allow a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements. He argued that if Washington had vetoed the resolution, it would have granted Israel a license for “unfettered settlement construction” and signaled the end of the peace process.
Kerry didn’t stop there; he left Israeli leaders with some prophetic words that seem to foreshadow the current situation. He warned, “If you don’t have leaders who don’t want to make peace, if the equation doesn’t change, I’ll be amazed if, within the next 10 years, we don’t see some young [Palestinian] leader come along who says, ‘We have tried non-violence for the last 30 years, and look, it hasn’t gotten us anything.’”
When that prophecy materialized on October 7th, instead of acting as a check on Israel’s traumatized and vengeful impulses, Blinken served as a town crier and stirred up an emotional storm that has led to over 10,000 Palestinians, with 75% of them being children, dead and buried under the rubble, with no end in sight.
Upon returning to Israel on Friday his fourth since the October attack, the situation seemed even more ripe for intervention. It has been clear to everyone, including Blinken, that Israel is drunk excessively on Palestinian blood, and a true friend with courage would have told them, ENOUGH, PUT THE BOMBS DOWN. The world seems to have missed this moment, largely because Antony Blinken is a weak tiny little man. Perhaps in this context, borrowing Ron DeSantis’s custom-made elevated boots, or something similar, would have boosted his self-esteem and increased the likelihood of him being forceful in demanding that Netanyahu halt the slaughter of Palestnian children.
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