Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said that it was the fault of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) that a peace deal was not agreed upon during the Obama administration.
Speaking to Christiane Amanpour on CNN, Kerry rejected Amanpour’s assertion that the administration failed to broker a peace deal.
“The leaders of the two countries involved – one country and one entity, the Palestinian Authority – have failed to come to the table and reach agreement. You know the old saying – you can lead a horse to water, you can’t make it drink. Now, we did a lot of leading to a lot of water, but people decided they weren’t ready for one reason or another to move,” he said.
Kerry also defended the administration’s decision to abstain during the vote at the UN Security Council on Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.
The reason for the abstention, said Kerry, is “because we believe that Israel has a major choice and the Palestinians have a major choice.”
He then went on to again criticize Israel’s presence communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, just as he did in the speech he gave several days after the passing of Resolution 2334. READ MORE
