State Dep't Tries to Walk Back Kerry's Linkage of ISIS and Israel

Here's what he said:

“As I went around and met with people in the course of our discussions about the ISIL coalition, the truth is we – there wasn’t a leader I met with in the region who didn’t raise with me spontaneously the need to try to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, because it was a cause of recruitment and of street anger and agitation that they felt – and I see a lot of heads nodding – they had to respond to. And people need to understand the connection of that. And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity,” Kerry said at reception in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on Friday.

The result of this linkage:

Palestinians expressed warm support for Secretary of State Kerry’s claims that the failure of the Israeli-PA peace process fueled recruitment to Islamic State. 

So, of course, one of Kerry's Gilmore Girls (the blonde one) is now trying to "explain" that his words were misconstrued or taken out of context or something:

The US State Department denied claims Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry made statements on Thursday suggesting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fueling the spread of Islamic terror in the Middle East. 

Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters that Kerry’s comments were distorted for political gains, pointing a finger at Economy Minister Naftali Bennett who had indicated Kerry was using an anti-Semitic canard.

When all else fails, blame the Jew.

Nothing anti-Semitic about that, right? (What Kerry has is a wicked case of jihad-denial, a malady which is even more fatal than Ebola.)

Update: An American Thinker (something which Kerry, clearly, is not) writes:

There have been countless discussions over the reasons behind extreme Jihad. Common explanations include poverty, lack of education, or mental instability. In other words, the argument is that circumstances drive individuals towards extremism. Nevertheless, a new study from the Queen Mary University of London concluded that “there is not a strong correlation between terrorism and poverty, lack of education, or mental instability.” Even more telling is that “terrorists are more likely to be highly educated and financially secure.” This would at least help explain the hundreds of Islamic State recruits coming from wealthy Western countries and the financial backing that the Islamic State enjoys from wealthy investors in the Arab Gulf.

The ideology of extreme Jihad is what the free world must ultimately destroy. If poverty, lack of education, or mental illnesses were the true sources of extreme Jihad, then it would make sense to focus efforts there. Nevertheless, if the “mounting evidence” suggests it is the pull of the ideology itself that drives members to extreme violence, then the strategy to confront this evil must be two-fold: decimate the Islamic State militarily and destroy their ideology.

Update: I'm sure it will come as no surprise that that so-called "anti-Semitic canard" (as "Rory" Harf termed it) was nothing of the sort:

Economics Minister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett fired back at US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday. 

“Even when a British Muslim beheads a British Christian, there will always be those who blame the Jews,” Bennett stated. 

“We don’t justify terror; we fight terror,” he added. 

“I suggest they listen to and believe ISIS,” he said. “These terrorists want to take over the Middle East, from Syria to Jordan and Lebanon, and to re-establish the [historic] Islamic caliphate.” 

“We could either fight it or explain it away,” he continued. “The choice is in the world’s hands, and it will bear the consequences.”

That's no canard. That's the God's honest truth.

No surprise that Obama's State Dep't (which is hardly a bastion of veracity) has difficulty telling the one from the other.

Rule of thumb, Rory: If it doesn't look like a canard or quack like a canard it's no canard.