Has every decision Kerry made as secretary been right? Of course not. But he has been far ahead of the curve and has been right far more often than not, which those who wage the winds of derisive war against him cannot remotely claim.

Kerry wants to stop the rockets and close the tunnels that threaten Israel. He wants to end the poverty and stop the misery that makes life unbearable for Palestinians. He understands that to achieve these goals, he must often challenge and sometimes offend all parties to these conflicts, which wise historians will someday commend and future generations of warring combatants will someday applaud.

Kerry does this in faithful service to President Obama, whose Mideast polices follow the tradition of all American presidents and previous Israeli prime ministers since 1948. The repeated barrages of derision from the Israeli right toward Israel’s one great ally in a lonely world are profoundly wrong and profoundly unwise.

The God of many great faiths loves the children of Israel and Palestine equally. When the secretary of State works to save these children, John Kerry is right.