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"While Secretary Kerry mentioned Gaza in his speech, he seems to have forgotten the history of the settlements in Gaza, where the Israeli government forced settlers to withdraw from all settlements and the Palestinians responded by sending rockets from Gaza into Israel," Schumer said in a statement. "This is something that people of all political stripes in Israel vividly remember.

Headline of the Day Poll Why did the U.S. abstain from the U.N. vote on Israeli settlements? Obama thinks it will bring peace to the Middle East Obama wishes to harm Israel 1VC

On Dec. 21, amid his morning workout, an afternoon round of golf and a family dinner with friends, President Obama interrupted his Hawaii vacation to consult by phone with his top national security team in Washington. Egypt had introduced a resolution at the U.N. Security Council condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, and a vote was scheduled for the next day. The idea had been circulating at the council for months, but the abrupt timing was a surprise. Obama was open to abstaining, he said on the call, provided the measure was “balanced” in its censure of terrorism and Palestinian violence...

Full title : Kerry: “Israel can either be Jewish or democratic. It cannot be both. And it won’t ever really be at peace.” …”The truth is that trends on the ground, violence, terrorism, settlement expansion and the seemingly endless occupation, they are combining to destroy hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing any reversible — an irreversible one state reality that most people do not actually want."Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea. They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded earlier today to the hour long speech by Secretary John Kerry and the clarified stance of the U.S. position toward Israel as outlined in the past several days.

I’m excited for him. It’s no small thing for a man to realize a fantasy he’s cherished for decades, even though literally no one cares what he has to say. Obama’s a sport for letting him live the dream. That sounds like a joke but it isn’t. What explanation could there be for this except that Kerry badly wanted to extend a rhetorical middle finger to Netanyahu’s government, whose agenda he attacked today as being “driven by its most extreme elements,” on behalf of the Obama administration as they head out the door? Nothing will flow from it policy-wise. The...

Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Wednesday offered a harsh and detailed assessment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying their growth threatens to destroy the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the United States was obliged to allow passage of a U.N. resolution condemning the activity in order to preserve the possibility of peace. Kerry noted that the number of Israelis living in settlements has grown significantly and that their outposts are extending farther into the West Bank — “in the middle of what by any reasonable definition would be the future...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said Israel's building of settlements on occupied land was endangering Middle East peace, voicing unusually frank frustration with America's longtime ally. In a swiftly issued statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Kerry of bias. He said Israel did not need to be lectured to by foreign leaders and looked forward to working with incoming President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to pursue more pro-Israeli policies.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday said American allies "won't be swayed or intimidated by a tweet" from President-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly weighed in on foreign affairs despite not yet taking office. In an exclusive interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Kerry said he would not get into a "debate" with Trump, but suggested U.S. allies have been "affected" by the president-elect's recent commentary on U.S.-Israeli relations and other sensitive foreign policy issues.

How can Israel do that when the Palestinian Authority and Hamas teach children to hate and kill Israeli Jews?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51U_EBDggkQ   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzWjSpka6gA   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-kOwFA8xZ4&t=3s  

n about two hours, John Kerry will deliver a speech at the State Department to outline the Obama administration’s plan for a peace settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians. Needless to say, the Israelis aren’t happy about it, Republicans are furious about it — and even some Democrats want Kerry and the White House to shut up. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House Democratic whip, lashed out at Kerry and the Obama administration for reversing decades of American policy on peace negotiations: Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the Democratic whip in the House of Representatives and the second- highest ranking Democrat in...

Prior to the UN Security Council vote on anti-Israeli settlement resolution 2334, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with a Palestinian delegation in early December in Washington to discuss the draft, agreeing to cooperate, according to transcripts released by Egyptian daily Al-Youm Al-Saba'a. According to the report, Kerry along with US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, met with Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erkat and Majed Faraj, head of the Palestinian Authority's General Intelligence Service. The reported transcripts reflect statements by numerous Israeli officials claiming that the resolution was orchestrated by the Obama administration. The source...

Israel fired back at Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasting Kerry’s lengthy televised rebuke of the Middle Eastern democracy and the United States’ abstention from an anti-Israel United Nations vote last week. Netanyahu, speaking in Jerusalem just over an hour after Kerry’s speech had ended, said the speech was “as unbalanced as the anti-Israel resolution passed last week.” “Secretary Kerry paid lip service to the unrelenting campaign of terror that has been waged by the Palestinians against the Jewish State,” Netanyahu said. He later added: “Israelis do not need to be lectured about...

On May 18, 1905, Frederick A. Kerry, a 32-year-old Viennese, arrived in New York City by steamship, the Königin Luise, with his wife and 4-year-old son, hopeful that his new country would bring him the success and social acceptance that had eluded him in Europe. Mr. Kerry probably could not have imagined that within a century a grandson, John Forbes Kerry, would find himself the Democratic candidate for president. Frederick Kerry brought with him a secret: he was born a Jew, Fritz Kohn, in what is now the Czech Republic, but he and his wife, Ida, had converted to Roman...

Tyler DurdenDecember 28, 2016 Just when you thought it was safe to turn Twitter down from '11', president-elect Donald Trump unleashes a triple whammy tweet-storm against the Obama administration, "shocking" the mainstream media with his frankness. First, he took direct aim at Obama, assuing the outgoing president of hobbling the transition to the Republican’s administration by unspecified "inflammatory" statements and "roadblocks," as tensions between the two men spilled into the open less than a month before Inauguration Day. Then unloaded a double-tweet aimed at the treatment of Israel. As a reminder, last week, Obama ordered Samantha Power to abstain from...

"Friends need to tell friends the hard truth," Kerry says during speech on Middle East peace plan https://t.co/hECQav0Jah pic.twitter.com/hTzIeXVLBo — CBS News (@CBSNews) December 28, 2016 Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday took aim at Israel’s government as he defended the administration's decision to allow the U.N. Security Council to pass resolution condemning the country's settlement activity. “Friends need to tell each other the hard truths and friendships require mutual respect,” Kerry said during a speech at the State Department.

11:45 a.m. Secretary of State John Kerry says that if Israel rejects a two-state solution for peace with the Palestinian people, "it can be Jewish or it can be democratic."

Defending Obama..

Report: Kerry met with Palestinian officials to orchestrate UN anti-settlement resolution in December (full title) Additional proof the Obama Administration orchestrated UN resolution released by Egypt; Transcripts of meeting between Kerry, Rice and Palestinian leadership; France claims no agenda in passing additional UN Security Council Resolution United States Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to lay out a framework for the peace process during a speech on Wednesday as the Obama Administration continues its efforts for pushing its agenda, while it can, ahead of a Trump administration. Kerry will deliver his address from the State Department ahead of the...

It is fairly obvious that John Kerry will lay the foundation for the "two state solution" during his speech today. What if DJT sent out a tweet in advance that stated something like this. "Expect no major changes in US policy toward Israel in remaining short time. Will not support last minute pivot." Basically laying out the fact that regardless what Kerry and Obama say, the US will not support such a change going forward. This could take the wind out of Kerry (and in turn Obama's) Sails.