At last, Israel hears the truth
US secretary of state accuses Netanyahu of land grab in the West Bank, and says ‘settler agenda’ is destroying peace hopes
US secretary of state John Kerry last night launched a blistering attack on Israel’s “settler agenda”, its land grab in the West Bank and its failure to commit to a twostate solution.
In a 70- minute speech that Palestinians have waited eight years to hear, and only weeks before the Obama administration leaves office, a visibly frustrated Mr Kerry warned that Israel seemed intent on the “perpet- ual occupation” of Palestinian-owned land.
“Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” he told an audience of diplomats in Washington. “They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state, or they can separate into two states.
“But here is a fundamental reality: if the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or dem- ocratic: it cannot be both – and it won’t ever really be at peace.”
Mr Kerry said Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to believe in a two-state solution, but the Israeli prime minister’s government was “the most right-wing in Israel’s history”.
“The settler agenda is defining the future of Israel,” Mr Kerry said. He drew a pointed reference to America’s own history of racial segregation. “Separate and unequal is what you would have, and nobody can explain how that works.
“The two-state solution is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said, but such a solution was now in “se- rious jeopardy”. “No one thinking seriously about peace can ignore the reality of the threat settlements pose to peace.
“But the problem goes well beyond just settlements. Trends indicate a comprehensive effort to take West Bank land for Israel and prevent any Palestinian development there.”
The secretary of state insisted that Israel and a future Palestine should live as two states based on the territory they held before the 1967 war.
“Equivalent swaps” of land could happen to modify the border, he said, but only by mutual consent.
“It is up to Israelis and Palestinians to make the difficult choices for peace but we can all help,” Mr Kerry said.
In the final days of president Barack Obama’s administration, and with Israel’s government openly hostile to outside pressure, Mr Kerry is keen to leave his mark. Both he and Mr Obama are clearly not ready to give up on the region yet, hoping a UN resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlement building in Palestinian territory and the secretary of state’s speech will save a moribund process. For years, Mr Obama has been deeply frustrated by the continuing growth of illegal settlements despite his pleas to the Israeli prime minister to rein them in.
Earlier yesterday, Israel de- layed a vote on permits for hundreds of settler homes at the prime minister’s request, as Mr Netanyahu tried to avoid further conflict with Washington.
But despite this, Gilad Erdan, a senior Israeli cabinet minister, called Mr Kerry’s speech a “pathetic step” before the sec- retary of state had even begun speaking.
Friday’s UN Security Council resolution passed 14- 0, with the United States abstaining.
By declining to use its veto, Washington enabled the adoption of the first UN resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy.
Mr Netanyahu reacted furiously, accusing the Obama administration of being behind the resolution and vowing not to abide by it.
Explaining the US decision in his speech, Mr Kerry said: “The vote in the UN was about preserving the two-state solution. That’s what we were standing up for: Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, living side by side in peace and security with its neighbours.”
Friday’s UN Security Council resolution passed 14-0, with the United States abstaining