US Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Wednesday that the future of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was in jeopardy, and laid out parameters for future peace talks, saying the United States could not stay silent.
In a speech just weeks before the Obama administration hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, Kerry defended the US decision to allow the passage of a UN resolution last week demanding an end to Israeli settlements, saying it was intended to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution.
"Despite our best efforts over the years, the two-state solution is now in serious jeopardy," Kerry said in a speech at the State Department. "We cannot, in good conscience, do nothing, and say nothing, when we see the hope of peace slipping away.
"The truth is that trends on the ground – violence, terrorism, incitement, settlement expansion and the seemingly endless occupation – are destroying hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing an irreversible one-state reality that most people do not actually want."
Kerry's parting words are unlikely to change anything on the ground between Israel and the Palestinians or salvage the Obama administration's record of failed Mideast peace efforts.
His impassioned speech comes less than a week after the United States abstained in the December 23 UN resolution, in what many see as a parting shot by US President Barack Obama who had an acrimonious relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump, who has vowed to pursue more pro-Israeli policies, had urged the United States to veto.
In tweets ahead of Kerry's speech Trump urged Israel to "stay strong" until he assumes office. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked him for his "warm friendship and clear-cut support".
More than 500,000 Jews live in settlements constructed on Palestinian land – illegally, under international law – since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. A vote on an application to build nearly 500 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem was postponed hours before Kerry's speech.
Advocates of a two-state solution fear that increased settlement-building and an incoming US government hostile to Palestinian aspirations for a homeland will leave 2.6 million Palestinians permanently stateless and do nothing to solve the deep-seated problems of the region.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
