Archive - Aug 3, 2014 - Story

When it comes to diplomacy, John Kerry may have rapidly become the biggest laughing joke in US State Department history, but that doesn't mean his exchanges weren't valuable to others. Others such as Israel, whose relations with the US have gone from worse to atrocious in recent months, and which as Spiegel just revealed, had eavesdropped on John Kerry on at least one occasion, during Mid-East peace negotiations. Israel would then use the information obtained from the calls during its own negotiations in the Mideast conflict. Further, Spiegel reports that at least one other intelligence service also listened in as Kerry mediated last year between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states. The German publications adds wryly that "revelations of the eavesdropping could further damage already tense relations between the US government and Israel" although with Netanyahu openly refusing Obama's demands about a Gaza ceasefire, one wonders just how much worse things between the two "allies" could get.