At a speech at the State Department, John Kerry defended the U.S. abstaining from a vote on a United Nations resolution condeming Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, saying the settlements posed a threat to peace. Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying Israel did not “need to be lectured.”
Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Wednesday harshly criticized Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying their growth threatens to destroy the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the United States was obliged to allow passage of a U.N. resolution condemning the activity in order to preserve the possibility of peace.
Kerry noted that the number of Israelis living in settlements has grown significantly and that their outposts are extending farther into the West Bank — “in the middle of what, by any reasonable definition, would be the future Palestinian state.”
“No one thinking seriously about peace can ignore the reality of what the settlements pose to that peace,” he said.
Kerry, in the hour-long speech delivered at the State Department, also condemned Palestinian incitement to violence as a barrier to direct negotiations. But his focus was on defending the Obama administration’s policies and highlighting Israel’s actions at a moment of high tension between the two governments, following the passage of the U.N. resolution.
Via the WaPo