A two-state solution is the only way to secure Israeli-Palestinian peace, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday as he defended the Obama administration's approach to the conflict and decision not to veto a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlement policies.
That two-state solution, however, is "in serious jeopardy," Kerry, who is nearing the end of his time at the State Department, said during a farewell speech on Middle East policy.
“The truth is that trends on the ground — violence, terrorism, incitement, settlement expansion and the seemingly endless occupation — they are combining to destroy hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing an irreversible one-state reality that most people do not actually want,” Kerry said.
“There is still a way forward if the responsible parties are willing to act,” the Secretary of State said, and he outlined "practical suggestions for how to preserve and advance the prospects for the just and lasting peace that both sides deserve.”
Kerry's comments come on the heels of last week’s U.S. decision not to veto the U.N. Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem a "flagrant violation" of international law. The abstention from Friday's vote further strained relations between the U.S. and Israel, with criticism from some Israeli leaders that the administration had abandoned and betrayed its close ally.
During his speech, Kerry said abstaining from the vote last week was "in accordance with" U.S. values.
"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, even after urging again and again that the policy must change,” Kerry said. “Friends need to tell each other the hard truths, and friendships require mutual respect.”
Jon Alterman, Director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the speech should be viewed not as a statement intended to change the situation on the ground, but as one written for posterity and the Obama administration's legacy.
"I think a lot of this was intended for the historical record and the President wanting to say, if all of this goes south, it’s not our fault. We had it right. And it’s somebody else’s fault," Alterman told The Cipher Brief. "But it certainly wasn’t intended to change the behavior of Israelis and I don’t think it had much of an Israeli audience. So I think the principal audience was an American audience, and the President wanting to assert that he understands that, here’s the problem and here’s the solution."
Ambassador Dennis Ross, Counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior Middle East adviser to three U.S. presidents, said it is important to note that Kerry, not President Barack Obama, delivered Wednesday's policy speech.
"That Secretary Kerry gave it probably reflected that he wanted to make these points and not have others say that he never laid out principles that emerged from his nine-month negotiating effort, acting largely as a intermediary between the Israelis and Palestinians between June 2013 and March 2014," he said.
Kerry questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to the two-state solution, saying that although he publicly supports it, “his current coalition is the most right-wing in Israel history with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements.”
“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. They are leading towards one-state,” Kerry said.
“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 said.
The Secretary of State also focused on defending the Obama administration's relationship with Israel, with Kerry saying "no American administration has done more for Israel's security than Barack Obama." Additionally, he noted increased intelligence cooperation with Israel and record levels of military assistance provided to the country under Obama — a landmark agreement signed in September will give Israel $38 billion in military aid during the next 10 years — and pointed out that previous administrations had also abstained on certain resolutions critical of Israel.
President-elect Donald Trump weighed in before the speech on Twitter, saying that “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 beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!” Netanyahu responded to Trump on Twitter, tagging Trump children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., and writing “President-elect Trump, thank you for your warm friendship and your clear-cut support for Israel!”
As for the future of the US-Israel relationship under a Trump presidency, Ross said that with the President-elect "signaling that the tone with the Israelis will be very different in his administration, it does not look like the relationship is going to be affected adversely."
"Much, I suspect, will depend on whether President Trump takes an active interest in the region and understands that the Las Vegas rules don’t apply there: what takes place in the Middle East does not stay in the Middle East. We can’t walk away or allow vacuums to form, and it remains to be seen what the Trump approach will be. Will he understand the danger of vacuums? Time will tell," added Ross.
Netanyahu called the speech a “deep disappointment” and criticized Kerry for focusing on Israeli settlements while devoting little time to Palestinian violence.
“In a speech ostensibly about peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Secretary Kerry paid lip service to the unremitting campaign of terrorism that has been waged by the Palestinians against the Jewish state for nearly a century,” the Prime Minister said, adding that “Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders.”
In his speech, Kerry said “the vote in the United Nations was about preserving the two-state solution. That's what we were standing up for.”
Wednesday's remarks, Ross said, were "certainly passionate, reflecting that Secretary Kerry cares deeply about the issue."
"I understand and share his concerns that we are drifting toward a one-state reality. What I guess I have a hard time understanding is why, if the administration and the Secretary are so concerned about blunting the drift toward one-state, have they not been prepared to adopt a differentiated approach on settlements?" Ross wrote. "Building within the settlement blocks which are on roughly 5 percent of the West Bank is consistent with a two-state outcome; allowing it outside is not. And, yet the public posture of the administration has been to treat all settlement activity as equal beyond the June 4, 1967 lines."
"The language in the UNSC [U. N. Security Council] resolution reflected this approach, deeming all settlements beyond the June 4 lines as illegal. Here is another irony: the Secretary talked about the principle for the border being 'the 1967 lines and mutually agreed equivalent swaps.' That essentially means blocks and swaps," he added. "Why then allow language that deems all settlements illegal if in the final analysis you are establishing a principle for the border that envisions settlement blocks?"
While his comments focused substantially on Israeli policy, Kerry also condemned the “incitements to violence” from Palestinian leadership. The “most recent wave of Palestinian violence has included hundreds of terrorist attacks in the past year including stabbings, shootings, vehicular attacks and bombings,” he said.
“President Obama and I have made it clear to the Palestinian leadership countless times, publicly and privately, that all incitements to violence must stop. We have consistently condemned violence and terrorism and even condemned the Palestinian leadership for not condemning it. Far too often the Palestinians have pursued efforts to delegitimize Israel in international fora. We have strongly opposed these initiatives,” he added.
Kerry said Israel “will never have true peace” with the Arab world if it does not reach an agreement based on Israelis and Palestinians living in their own states. The Secretary of State, who in less than one month will be out the door as the next administration comes in, concluded his 70-minute speech calling for “realistic steps on the ground now” that will “begin the process of separating into two states.”
“It is vital that we all work to keep open the possibility of peace, that we not lose hope in the two-state solution matter how difficult it may seem because there really is no viable alternative,” said Kerry. “Now, we all know that a speech alone won't produce peace, but based on over 30 years of experience and the lessons from the past four years, I have suggested, I believe, and President Obama has signed on to and believes it, a path that the parties could take,” he added.
Mackenzie Weinger is a national security reporter at The Cipher Brief. Follow her on Twitter @mweinger.
