Politics

Kerry: Israeli Settlement Leaders Are Preventing Peace Process

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Russ Read Pentagon/Foreign Policy Reporter
Font Size:

Secretary of State John Kerry blamed both Israel and Palestine for the deterioration of peace negotiations, but pointed to settlement activity as a key impediment to a two-state solution.

Kerry outlined his concerns with Israeli settlement activity while providing a speech on the currently stalled peace negotiations Wednesday. He claimed that the potential for a peaceful solution to the decades-old conflict between Israel and Palestine is becoming increasingly unlikely.

“Despite our best efforts over the years, the two-state solution is now in serious jeopardy,” Kerry said, alluding his failed attempts to bring the two sides together to negotiate in 2014. “Both sides push a narrative that plays to people’s fears.”

Kerry reprimanded the Palestinian Authority for continuing to support incitement to violence against Israelis, noting that the Palestinian Fatah party website and public squares glamorize terrorists. He noted that there is absolutely no justification for terrorism — and there never will be — adding that “all incitement to violence must stop.”

Despite increasing violence coming from Palestinians, Kerry noted “we have to be clear about what is happening in the West Bank.”

The secretary spent a significant portion of his speech outlining the supposed one-state agenda of Israeli settlement leaders in the West Bank, which risks scuttling prospects of a two-state solution permanently. Kerry claimed these leaders are driven by ideological imperatives that disregard the concerns and rights of Palestinians.

Kerry admonished Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for supporting the settler agenda by committing to more settlement building than any government in Israel’s history. He added that increased numbers of settlers will make it much more difficult to engage in land swaps, which could be a necessary step to a permanent solution.

Kerry warned that the one-state agenda of the settlers would lead to Palestinians living as “separate and unequal” citizens in Israel.

“Here is a fundamental reality,” the outgoing secretary of state said. “If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or Democratic, but it cannot be both.”

The secretary’s speech comes just days after the Obama administration abstained from a vote in the United Nations Security Council, which condemned Israel’s settlement policy. Israeli officials saw the abstention as a major change from U.S. policy — they traditionally see the U.S. using its veto power to curtail anti-Israel resolutions. The Obama administration blamed the Israeli government’s settlement policy for the passage of the resolution, a point Kerry reiterated in his speech.

“We may not be able to stop them, but we cannot be expected to defend them,” Kerry said regarding the Israeli settlers. He also attempted to counter claims made by the Israeli government that the Obama administration somehow colluded to ensure the vote passed.

Kerry said Obama’s desire to back Israel did not change with the recent abstention, but it has nonetheless infuriated Netanyahu’s government, which promised to start working with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Follow Russ Read on Twitter

Send tips to russ@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel