Kerry Blasts Settlements: The Speech’s Aftermath

Today’s Top Stories

1. In a policy address yesterday (see video or transcript), US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Israeli settlements. Take your pick of Jerusalem Post or Times of Israel summaries.

Responding to the speech, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted it as an unfair attack that only paid lip service to Palestinian terror, and insisted the US worked behind the scenes to orchestrate resolution 2334. Palestinian officials praised Kerry’s remarks (though with reservations about the parameters). President-elect Donald Trump panned the speech and the UN.

See below for more on the aftermath and commentary.

2. Before Kerry’s address, a number of papers picked up on Haaretz reporting that the Russians rejected the Secretary of State’s push for the Quartet (the US, UN, EU and Russia) to adopt the principles of his speech.

According to the announcement, Lavrov stressed to Kerry that there is a need for conditions to conduct direct negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but stressed that internal American politics must not dictate them.

3. According to Israeli media reports, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit gave a green light for a full-out criminal investigation of Netanyahu over allegations of fraud and bribery.

4. HR Française Prompts Public Demonstration Against French TV Station: French Jewish activists are even using our point-by-critique as one basis for legal action against the Paris-based Channel M6.

5. HonestReporting’s Top Content of 2016: We had a busy year, with media critiques, videos and social media posts. Here’s a look back at what HR readers were buzzing about.

6. HonestReporting’s “Red Lines: The Eight Categories of Media Bias” is a video series based on our latest E-book (available on Amazon for a small fee). In the eighth and final video of the series, current and former journalists Mark Lavie, Adi Schwartz, Haviv Rettig Gur and Michelle Chabin discuss issues of media transparency.

Israel and the Palestinians

• Not wanting to provoke further ire, at Netanyahu’s request a Jerusalem zoning committee cancelled a vote on over 600 new housing units in eastern Jerusalem.

• UK accused of ‘failing to take honourable course’ over UN vote

• White House official Ben Rhodes to CNN: Obama will veto any other UN resolution critical of Israel.

• Mahmoud Abbas: I’ll resume talks if Israel halts settlement activity:

“The minute the Israeli government agrees to cease all settlement activities… and agrees to implement the signed agreements on the basis of mutual reciprocity, the Palestinian leadership stands ready to resume permanent status negotiations on the basis of international law and relevant international legality resolutions… under a specified timeframe,” he said in a statement.

• Abbas confidant: Palestinians ‘to take hundreds of Israeli soldiers to ICC.’

• Israeli officials speaking out in the media included Ambassador Danny Danon on CNN, and a Newsweek op-ed by MK Michael Oren.

• Australia broke ranks with the US and New Zealand, as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia would have voted against resolution 2334 if it were a Security Council member.

• Held by Shin Bet, top Hamas official reveals vital tunnel intel.

• Seasons greetings from the Palestinian leadership:

• Yuval Rotem tapped as permanent Foreign Ministry Director-General. If Rotem’s name rings a bell Down Under, it’s because he served as Israel’s ambassador to Australia several years ago.

• The Wall St. Journal takes a closer look at the IDF’s efforts to integrate more women in combat roles. Click via Google News.

• Israeli mystery of lost babies gets a new chapter as 200,000 secret records go online.

Commentary/Analysis

• Plenty of broken quills and burnt pixels commenting on the Kerry address and UNSC vote. I’ll start with this Wall St. Journal staff-ed (click via Google News)

The reality is that the resolution denies Israel legal claims to the land—including Jewish holy sites such as the Western Wall—while reversing the traditional land-for-peace formula that has been a cornerstone of U.S. diplomacy for almost 50 years. In the world of Resolution 2334, the land is no longer Israel’s to trade for peace. Mr. Kerry also called East Jerusalem “occupied” territory, which contradicts Administration claims in the 2015 Supreme Court case, Zivotofsky v. Kerry, that the U.S. does not recognize any sovereignty over Jerusalem.

• A New York Times choir of a staff-editorial, Tom Friedmman column, and  Peter Baker analysis provided John Kerry with resounding Amens. Contrast that with, say, the Boston Globe, which gave op-ed soapboxes for and against the White House to Indira Lakshmanan and Eric Fehrnstrom

• Here’s what else I’m reading today:

– Eli Lake: Obama fulfills his prophecy on Israeli settlements
– Aaron David Miller: What did Kerry’s parting shot on Middle East mean?
– David Horovitz: The only thing he didn’t say was ‘apartheid’
– Frida Ghitis: Obama misreads Israeli/Palestinian conflict — again
– Gil Troy: Joining the jackals
– Alan Dershowitz: The consequences of not vetoing the Israel resolution
– Douglas Feith: Settlements are not the issue (click via Google News)
– Khaled Abu Toameh: UN, Obama further radicalize Palestinians

Sometimes it feels necessary to point out that the state of Israel is one one-hundredth of one percent of the world's surface.

— Matti Friedman (@MattiFriedman) December 28, 2016

– Orde Kittrie: What UNSCR 2334 could mean beyond the UN
– Amos Yadlin: Radical moves will only deepen our diplomatic isolation
– Herb Keinon: Kerry leaves stage locked into failed assumptions
– Chemi Shalev: Kerry’s eulogy for peace
– Raphael Ahren: Why is Netanyahu so afraid of the ‘Kerry Parameters’?
– David Rothkopf: The last act of Obama’s Israel drama may be his best
– Aviva Klompas: The UN’s lost legitimacy
– Avi Issacharoff: Mr. Kerry, the 2-state solution isn’t at risk, it’s already dead

– Clifford May discussed the speech with the Wall St. Journal:

– Boaz Bismuth: Mr. Kerry, kindly leave us in peace
– Gregg Roman: Kerry is dead wrong about Israeli settlements
– Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin: Security Council resolution just makes the standoff worse
– Jonathan Tobin: Why this resolution was different
– David Harris: Dear Secetary Kerry
– Elliott Abrams: The UN resolution on Israel
– Julian Borger: John Kerry’s peace plan mirrors Bill Clinton’s futile end-of-term attempt
– Benny Avni: Kerry’s one-sided self-serving sermon for Mid-East peace
– David Singer: Correcting Carr’s canards concerning Israe

Pretty lame picking on Israel about a bill that didnt pass, and the views of the Education Minister. Would this happen w/any other country?

— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) December 28, 2016

• Staff editorials also weighed in.

– Daily Telegraph: UN must be an honest broker, not bash Israel
– New York Post: Kerry’s delusional rant blames Israel for his own failures
– New York Daily News: John Kerry’s lost stand and the betrayal of Israel
– Boston Globe: Trump needs to lay out his strategy for the Mideast
– Los Angeles Times: From bad to worse, as Israel pursues settlement expansion
– Bloomberg News: Obama’s betrayal of Israel at the UN must not stand

• Tweets that made me go hmmmm include @cerenomri, @HerbKeinon, @RaoulWootliff, @elilake, @Yair_Rosenberg, @NoahPollak, @sfrantzman, @AnshelPfeffer and @K_AminThaabet, among others.

Featured image: CC BY Terje Skjerdal with additions by HonestReporting; Kerry via YouTube/US Dept. of State; map CC BY-SA Wikimedia Commons;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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