MIDEAST PEACE

Kerry: UN Resolution Was in Line With U.S. Values

Says a two-state solution is the only way to achieve lasting peace.

Secretary of State John Kerry laid out his case Wednesday for why the U.S. abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote to condemn Israel for its settlement activity, paving the way for it to be approved. During his 11 a.m. speech, Kerry said that a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine is the “only way to achieve a just and lasting peace” and that increased settlement activity on the part of Israel is threatening that peace process. “If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic. It cannot be both,” Kerry said in a blistering critique of the current “extreme” Israeli government. He declared that the Obama administration has done more for Israel’s security than any past U.S. administration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded almost immediately to the speech. “What he did was to spend most of his speech blaming Israel for the lack of peace by passionately condemning a policy of enabling Jews to live in their historic homeland and in their eternal capital, Jerusalem,” he said.