Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Israeli government of undermining prospects for a two-state solution Wednesday and defended the Obama administration’s decision to allow the passage of a United Nations resolution critical of Israel, underscoring that Israeli settlements “only invited U.N. action.”
“The Israeli prime minister publicly supports a two state solution, but his current coalition is the most right-wing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements,” Kerry said in a speech laying out his vision for Middle East peace Wednesday.
“The result is that policies of this government, which the prime minister himself just described as more committed to settlements than any in Israel’s history, are leading in the opposite direction,” he continued. “They’re leading towards one state.”
The resolution describes Israeli settlements as having “no legal validity,” among other measures, and passed 14 to 0 Friday with an abstention from the United States. The abstention is in line with the administration’s values, Kerry said.
“The United States did in fact vote in accordance with our values, just as previous administrations have done,” he said. “The vote in the United Nations was about preserving the two-state solution. That’s what we were standing up for.”
Kerry added that the United States, as a friend of Israel, had to be upfront about “hard truths.”
“Regrettably, some seem to believe that the U.S. friendship means the U.S. must accept any policy, regardless of our own interests, our own positions, our own words, our own principles,” he said. “Friends need to tell each other the hard truths.”
Soon after, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Kerry’s speech as “skewed against Israel.”
“For over an hour, Kerry dealt obsessively with the settlements and almost didn’t touch on the root of the conflict—the Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state in any boundaries,” he said in a statement.
Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, have said that the administration helped draft and push for the resolution behind the scenes, with one report alleging that Kerry discussed the resolution with a top Palestinian negotiator in a meeting ahead of the vote.
Kerry and a number of other administration officials have denied doing so.
“The United States did not draft or originate this resolution—nor did we put it forward,” Kerry said.
