Kerry Calls Netanyahu’s Settlements Stance a Threat to Peace
- Speech comes amid rising tensions with incoming Trump team
- Netanyahu slams comments as ‘unbalanced’ against Israel
Kerry: Friends Need to Tell Each Other the Hard Truth
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the chances for Mideast peace are increasingly at risk as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government backs the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, contrary to both sides’ stated goal of fostering a “two-state solution” to the conflict.
Settlement growth, including in areas far from the pre-1967 borders, means the prospects for a diplomatic solution are being “narrowed,” Kerry said in a speech in Washington on Wednesday, less than a week after the U.S. declined to veto a United Nations resolution criticizing Israeli policy in the West Bank. “The settler agenda is defining the future.”