This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/28/kerry-defends-us-decision-to-not-veto-un-condemnation-of-israeli-settlements

The article has changed 12 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Kerry defends US decision not to veto UN condemnation of Israeli settlements Kerry defends US decision not to veto UN resolution against Israeli settlements
(35 minutes later)
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has offered a blistering defence of the United States’ decision to not veto a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement building in a speech that marked the toughest remarks on Israel by a US official in years. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has offered a blistering defence of the US decision to allow a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements, saying if Washington had vetoed it, it would have given Israel a licence for “unfettered settlement construction” and the end of the peace process.
Framing a two-state solution as “the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, Kerry also took aim at the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for building a coalition that was “the most rightwing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements”. Framing a two-state solution as “the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, Kerry took aim at the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for building a coalition that was “the most rightwing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements”.
“I am compelled to respond today that the United States did in fact vote in accordance with our values,” Kerry said of UN security council resolution, which demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem”. Kerry’s speech was the latest chapter in a spate of high-octane diplomatic drama marked by a war of words between the Obama administration and Israel since the vote on Friday that called Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem a “flagrant violation of international law”.
“If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic,” Kerry said. “It cannot be both.” The speech was immediately condemned by Netanyahu who described it as both “skewed” and “obsessively” focused on the settlement issue.
Set against the backdrop of an unusually charged back-and-forth between the US and Israeli governments, Kerry strongly rejected characterisations of the Obama administration’s actions as hostile toward one of its closest allies. The exchange between Kerry and Netanyahu marked a new low in the relationship between Israel’s government and the Obama administration.
“Some seem to believe that the US friendship means the US must accept any policy, regardless of our own interests, our own positions, our own words, our own principles - even after urging again and again that the policy must change,” Kerry said. “Friends need to tell each other the hard truths.” The US abstention in Friday’s security council resolution has drawn unprecedented Israeli fury directed at its closest ally – and other friendly countries that voted for the resolution – and accusations of betrayal and underhand dealings.
The secretary of state’s speech came as Donald Trump, who has vowed to reverse course from the Obama administration’s policy toward Israel, prepares to take office on 20 January. The president-elect issued a prebuttal to Kerry’s speech earlier on Wednesday, tweeting: “We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but … not any more.” Describing that decision, however, Kerry said: “If we had vetoed this resolution ... the United States would have been giving license to further, unfettered settlement construction that we fundamentally oppose.”
“The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!” Trump wrote. “It is not this resolution that is isolating Israel,” he added. “It is the permanent policy of [Israeli] settlement construction that risks making peace impossible.”
Netanyahu, who has accused the Obama administration of colluding behind the scenes to secure the UN vote, swiftly responded to Trump with a tweet of his own. The US secretary of state’s speech came as Donald Trump vowed once again to reverse US policy, which he has described as hostile to Israel, as soon as he takes office.
“President-elect Trump, thank you for your warm friendship and your clear-cut support for Israel!” Netanyahu wrote, while tagging Trump’s children Ivanka and Donald Jr and sharing images of the Israeli and American flags. Issuing a prebuttal to Kerry’s speech earlier on Wednesday, Trump tweeted: “We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but .... not anymore.”
The Israeli prime minister has escalated his war of words with the White House in recent days, threatening to share evidence that Obama was involved in the advancement of the UN vote. The Obama administration has categorically denied the allegations. “The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!” Trump wrote referring to the date of his swearing in.
Kerry similarly disputed the claims on Wednesday, while criticising those seeking to “distract attention from what the substance of this vote really was all about.” Despite being delivered in the last weeks of the Obama administration, Kerry’s speech – as well as the UN resolution itself – have been widely seen as a part of an effort to future-proof the two-state solution against the incoming Trump administration, giving the EU and other institutions the tools to continue pressuring Israel on issues such as the settlements.
Previous administrations from both parties have condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Kerry noted. This resulted in one of the most passionate speeches delivered by Kerry during his time as America’s top diplomat.
“Let’s be clear: settlement expansion has nothing to do with Israel’s security,” he said, adding that Israel was staring down the barrel at “one state and perpetual occupation.” Pushing back at Israel’s fury over the US abstention on Friday’s vote, Kerry pointedly questioned Netanyahu’s commitment to Palestinian statehood – asking whether Israelis believed their interests were best served by the recent attacks on the Obama administration by Israeli leaders.
Kerry also aggressively defended the outgoing administration’s legacy on Israel. Kerry also offered a bleak vision of the risk of the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the two-state solution, painting the alternative one-state solution in the darkest terms.
“No American administration has done more for Israel’s security than Barack Obama’s,” he said. “Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea,” Kerry told his audience of diplomats in Washington, out-lining the demographic reality on the ground that would colour the future of a unitary state.
“The Israeli prime minister himself has noted our unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation. Our military exercises are more advanced than ever. Our assistance for Iron Dome has saved countless Israeli lives. We have consistently supported Israel’s right to defend itself, by itself, including during actions in Gaza that sparked great controversy.” “[Israelis and Palestinians] have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state, or they can separate into two states.
“Despite our best efforts over the years, the two-state solution is now in serious jeopardy … We cannot, in good conscience, do nothing, and say nothing, when we see the hope of peace slipping away.
“If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both, and it won’t ever really be at peace.”
Kerry also took the opportunity to forcefully deny Israeli accusations that the Obama administration had been behind the drafting of last week’s resolution amid Israeli accusations that the US colluded with the Palestinians in drafting the resolution.
The US, insisted Kerry, “did not draft or originate” the UN resolution, adding, “nor did we put it forward” in the UN.
“The United States did in fact vote in accordance with our values, just as previous administrations have done,” Kerry said during the speech at the US State Department. “The vote in the United Nations was about preserving the two-state solution. That’s what we were standing up for.”
Kerry outlined a series of principles he said should form the basis of a future peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians, with the likely participation of the United States, including a “secure and recognised border” between Israel and the new nation of Palestine.
He also said an agreement must help Palestinian refugees, designate Jerusalem as a capital for both states and satisfy Israel’s security needs.
Kerry insisted that far from abandoning Israel, the Obama administration had been one of its strongest defenders not least in the signing of a $38bn defence assistance deal.
Responding to the speech, Netanyahu said in a statement: “Like the security council resolution that Secretary Kerry advanced in the UN, his speech tonight was skewed against Israel.
“For over an hour, Kerry obsessively dealt with settlements and barely touched upon the root of the conflict – Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state in any boundaries.”