Kerry defends US vote on Israeli settlements

WASHINGTON — Facing searing Israeli criticism in the wake of the US decision to abstain on a UN Security Council resolution criticizing Israeli settlements last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry defended the US decision in an impassioned speech Dec. 28, saying Washington can’t stand by as continued settlement expansion forecloses the possibility of a two-state solution.

“Regrettably, some seem to believe that the US friendship means the US must accept any policy, regardless of our own interests,” Kerry said in the 70-minute speech at the State Department. “Friends need to tell each other the hard truths, and friendships require mutual respect.”

He said the bottom line was that "the vote in the United Nations was about preserving the two-state solution.” 

Kerry rejected at times highly personal Israeli claims that the Barack Obama administration had plotted secretly to advance the resolution behind Israel’s back, seemingly in an act of malice or anti-Israel bias. Kerry said he personally has had hundreds of phone conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the past four years, and the possibility of such a resolution advancing was well known.