by Israel Hayom Staff
Daily Beast report: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tells closed meeting of influential officials from around the world that at some point in future he may lay out his own peace proposal and tell Israel and the Palestinians to "take it or leave it."
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U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry
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Photo credit: AFP  |
If a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is not reached soon, Israel risks becoming an "apartheid state," U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday, according to a Daily Beast report
published on Sunday.
The Daily Beast obtained a recording of remarks Kerry made
on Friday at a closed meeting of the Trilateral Commission attended by
influential officials from around the world.
"A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the
only real alternative," Kerry was quoted as saying. "Because a unitary state
winds up either being an apartheid state with second class citizens -- or it
ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state.
"Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which
is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state
solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed
to."
In response to the report, U.S. State Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki told The Daily Beast that Kerry was merely reiterating his
opinion that a two-state solution is the only way for Israel to remain a Jewish
state and be at peace with the Palestinians.
"Secretary Kerry, like Justice Minister [Tzipi] Livni, and
previous Israeli Prime Ministers [Ehud] Olmert and [Ehud] Barak, was reiterating
why there's no such thing as a one-state solution if you believe, as he does, in
the principle of a Jewish state," Psaki said. "He was talking about the kind of
future Israel wants and the kind of future both Israelis and Palestinians would
want to envision. The only way to have two nations and two peoples living side
by side in peace and security is through a two-state solution. And without a
two-state solution, the level of prosperity and security the Israeli and
Palestinian people deserve isn't possible."
In his remarks, Kerry warned that a failure of the peace
talks could lead to a spike of Palestinian violence against Israel.
"People grow so frustrated with their lot in life that
they begin to take other choices and go to dark places they've been before,
which forces confrontation," Kerry said.
Regarding the current impasse in the peace talks, Kerry
said, "The reports of the demise of the peace process have consistently been
misunderstood and misreported. And even we are now getting to the moment of
obvious confrontation and hiatus, but I would far from declare it dead. You
would say this thing is going to hell in a hand basket, and who knows, it might
at some point, but I don't think it is right now, yet."
"There's a period here where there needs to be some
regrouping. I don't think it's unhealthy for both of them to have to stare over
the abyss and understand where the real tensions are and what the real critical
decisions are that have to be made. Neither party is quite ready to make it at
this point in time. That doesn't mean they don't have to make these
decisions."
Kerry added that he might in the future lay out his own
proposal for a peace deal and tell both sides to "take it or leave it."
David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish
Committee, responded to Kerry's remarks, telling the Daily Beast, "While we've
heard Secretary Kerry express his understandable fears about alternative
prospects for Israel to a two-state deal and we understand the stakes involved
in reaching that deal, the use of the word 'apartheid' is not helpful at all. It
takes the discussion to an entirely different dimension. In trying to make his
point, Kerry reaches into diplomatic vocabulary to raise the stakes, but in
doing so he invokes notions that have no place in the
discussion."
Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=17125
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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