Kerry's goodbye speech: 2-state solution 'only way' for lasting peace between Israelis, Palestinians

RT
Wed, 28 Dec 2016 18:57 UTC

© Justin Tallis / AFP

Secretary of State John Kerry laid out the US proposal for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, less than a month before the Trump administration takes office and at a low point in US-Israeli relations.

Kerry's speech is widely seen as an attempt to set the Obama administration's Middle East policy in stone before the January 20 changeover. President-elect Donald Trump has been vocally supportive of Israel and vowed a change of policy after his inauguration.

"2-state solution is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians," Kerry said emphasizing that it was the only way to ensure Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Washington of conspiring against his country by not blocking the Egyptian resolution condemning Israeli settlements at the UN Security Council last week. The State Department has dismissed the accusation as "just not true."

Comment: 'Just not true': State Dept denies Israeli claims US was behind UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements

"The US did in fact vote in accordance with our values," Kerry said. "No American administration has done more for Israel's security than Barack Obama's."

Kerry reminded of the amount of military aid Israel has received from the US from Iron Dome to intelligence. "More than ½ of our entire global foreign military financing goes to Israel," Kerry said.

Kerry said that two-state solution is in danger despite popular support. "Polls of Israelis and Palestinians show there is still strong support for a 2-state solution in theory. They just don't believe it can happen," Kerry said.

Kerry said that proliferation of settler outposts illegal not only by Oslo Accords, but also under Israel's own laws, often located on private Palestinian land and strategically located in places designed to make the 2-state solution impossible.

If this happens, it will undermine regional security and rights of millions of people.

"If there is only one state, you'd have millions of Palestinians permanently living in segregated enclaves," Kerry said. "If Israel goes down the one-state path, it will never have true peace with the rest of the Arab world."

Kerry said that since our 2011 veto, "over 30,000 settlement units advanced through some stage of the planning process" and If US had vetoed December 2016 resolution, US would have given approval to this process.

Comment: See also: U.S. secret agreement with Palestinians prior to U.N. Security Council vote on Israel's illegal settlements

Update: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced a speech by US Secretary of State John Kerry about Jewish settlements as "biased", adding that the top US diplomat completely ignored the deep roots of the conflict.

Kerry dealt "obsessively" with the issue of the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, Netanyahu said in a statement, calling it an anti-Israeli speech.

"Like the Security Council resolution that Secretary Kerry advanced in the U.N., his speech tonight was skewed against Israel," the statement reads, as cited by Reuters.

Netanyahu went on to say that Kerry almost completely ignored the root of the conflict that, according to Israeli Prime Minister, consisted of the Palestinian opposition to the very existence of the Jewish state within any borders.