Kerry: Israel Must Choose Between Settlement Expansion and Peace

John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, has sharply criticized the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that Israel "ignores all warnings regarding settlement policies in the occupied Palestinian territories" and "creates trouble for the U.S." According to Kerry, these policies are leading Israel itself "toward a troubling turning point" and the country must "choose between construction and the path of peace." Kerry made these remarks on Sunday, December 14, at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He stated that Israeli right-wingers have turned settlement expansion into a policy to prevent peace, and the lack of a peace outlook will "sooner or later lead to new violence." Kerry expressed his "concern for Israel's future" as someone who is a "friend of Israel," noting his recent assistance in finalizing a $38 billion military aid package from the U.S. to Israel. According to the Jerusalem Post, Kerry expressed his despair over the lack of a peace horizon for Israeli-Palestinian relations, despite having personally visited Israel and the Palestinian territories 40 times over the past four years. During his four years as Secretary of State, Kerry had at least 130 face-to-face meetings with Netanyahu and discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with him 375 times. The Jerusalem Post reported that Kerry expressed his "despair" over Israeli construction just two hours after Netanyahu stated at the same conference that "Israeli construction is not the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Netanyahu argued that the main obstacle to achieving a two-state solution is that Palestinians, including Mahmoud Abbas, do not accept the existence of a state for Jews. He also claimed that his government has been able to create "new alliances" in recent years amid a turbulent Middle East, and that Israel's coalition with Arab countries could encourage Palestinians to come to terms with Israel. However, Kerry disagreed with Netanyahu's views, stating that "as long as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not resolved, there will be no peace agreement between the Arab world and Israel." As the Obama administration reaches its final months, it has not made any recent efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Obama has stated that he sees no prospect for resuming peace talks during his presidency. The last round of real Israeli-Palestinian negotiations took place in the fall of 2008 during the final months of Ehud Olmert's premiership. Recently, Israel also rejected a political initiative from the French government to resume Israeli-Palestinian political talks. The French government has stated that despite Israel's rejection, it will attempt to hold another conference in the coming weeks under the political initiative of François Hollande's government. However, Hollande's recent announcement that he will not run for re-election in next year's presidential election has cast doubt on the future of his government's political initiative regarding Israel and the Palestinians.