Kerry says “in literally hundreds of conversations” with Netanyahu, he stressed that settlements “only invited UN action.”
“Yet the settlement activity only increased,” he says, including the “unprecedented” outpost bill.
“In the end we could not in good conscience protect the most extreme elements of the settler movement” trying to “destroy” the two-state solution, he says.
“We may not be able to stop them — but we cannot be expected to defend them,” he says.
“We did not take this decision lightly,” he says of choosing not to veto the UN vote. “But remember, it’s important to note that every United States administration…. has opposed settlements” and the action at Security Council “is far from unprecedented.”
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