Secretary of State John Kerry will lay out his vision for the Middle East peace process Wednesday, according to a State Department spokesman, less than a week after the Obama administration allowed the passage of a United Nations resolution critical of Israel.
“He feels it’s his duty in his waning weeks and days as secretary of state to lay out what he believes is a way to a peaceful two-state solution,” spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday.
The U.N. resolution, which passed Friday in a 14 to 0 vote with an abstention by the United States, describes Israeli settlements as having “no legal validity.” The resolution drew sharp condemnation from Israeli officials, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms,” Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. “At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half a million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall ‘occupied territory.'”
The prime minister and other Israeli officials have charged that the Obama administration “colluded … behind the scenes” to draft the resolution and push for the vote. The administration has denied doing so.
“We reject the notion that the United States was the driving force behind this resolution,” Toner said Tuesday. “That’s just not true.”
The administration’s abstention has been met with bipartisan disapproval from lawmakers, some of whom have since called for defunding the United Nations. President-elect Donald Trump, who urged against passing the resolution, has pledged that “things will be different” in relation to the U.N. after he takes office.
Kerry ramped up criticism of Israel weeks before the vote, amid predictions from experts and lawmakers that the administration was planning to launch an anti-Israel offensive before leaving office.
“It’s no secret that the Obama administration is angling to do something against the Israelis after the election, when it will face no political pressure,” a senior political official at a nonpartisan national Jewish organization told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in October. “The administration wants to be able to say the Israelis forced them to act, which is why they’ve launched these efforts to blame Tel Aviv for tensions.”
