Former Secretary of State and Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger told an awards dinner in New York this week that Israel should not seek a permanent or comprehensive peace with the Palestinians until regional turmoil settles down, Algemeiner reports.

Kissinger’s advice comes amidst renewed pressure by the Obama administration on Israel to make concessions to Palestinians, even as the Palestinian Authority backs violent protest in Jerusalem.

Kissinger made the remarks in the presence of luminaries such as Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he received the Theodor Herzl Award from the World Jewish Congress (WJC) at a Tuesday gala. The award “recognizes individuals who carry forward Herzl’s ideals for a safer, more tolerant world through international support for Israel and enhanced understanding of Jewish history, culture and peoplehood,” according to the WJC website.

According to the Algemeiner’s Dovid Efune:

After describing the regional turmoil, Kissinger advised against seeking a “permanent settlement” until “the fundamental issues that I described here move to some resolution.” The renowned diplomat said “the overall solutions will have to be discussed within the context of a solution of the various upheavals and the settling down of these upheavals.” In the meantime, he counseled, Israel should “make contributions by the understanding it shows for the psychological and historical problems of the people with which it lives in the same territory. But things cannot be accomplished in a final manner in a single negotiation.”

An earlier push by the Obama administration for a comprehensive peace failed this past spring, and was followed by a summer of war in Gaza. Both President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton also made a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace a top priority for their lame-duck years, and both saw the results end in failure and war, largely due to Palestinian refusal to accept compromise terms.

The Obama administration has exceeded its predecessors in threatening to punish Israel, including through backing away from its traditional posture of support for Israel at the United Nations.

Proponents of a rapid, comprehensive peace argue that Israel is in a race against demographics, i.e. that Arabs will soon outnumber Jews in the disputed area. However, Palestinian demographic data have been debunked.

Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak edits Breitbart California and is the author of the new ebook, Wacko Birds: The Fall (and Rise) of the Tea Party, available for Amazon Kindle.

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