Two-state solution ‘not impossible dream,’ Kerry says at UN

US Secretary of State John Kerry told an Israeli gathering at the United Nations on Wednesday that a two-state solution in the Middle East was “not an impossible dream” but would require courage.

Kerry traveled to UN headquarters in New York to attend a commemoration of the 1975 speech delivered by Israeli ambassador Chaim Herzog denouncing a UN resolution that declared Zionism a form of racism.

“The Zionist dream embraces the concept of Israel as a Jewish democracy, a beacon of light to all nations,” Kerry told the event.

“That dream can only be upheld by two states living side by side in security.

“We all know from years of discussion and efforts: this is not an impossible dream. It is achievable.”

His remarks followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week that saw little signs of progress in efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Earlier in the day Kerry and Netanyahu met in Washington DC before Netanyahu flew back to Israel on Wednesday evening. The State Department said in a statement the two had a “constructive meeting… in which they discussed concrete ideas for stopping the violence, improving conditions on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza, and moving the diplomatic process forward.”

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been comatose since Kerry’s failed peace mission in April last year.

Kerry argued that choosing to recognize a Palestinian state “demands courage, demands leadership” and likened that choice to Herzog’s actions at the UN 40 years ago.

“Fear and bigotry can be defeated, but those are choices we now get to make. So now it’s our turn.”

Kerry also urged the world to condemn rising anti-Semitism and bigotry and unite in the struggle against violent extremism and “terrorist bigots.”

Kerry called the 1975 resolution ominous because it gave “a global license to hate” the state of Israel, and he called on diplomats and governments to do everything in their power to prevent the United Nations from being hijacked again “for malicious intent.”

The call for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement resonated at the United Nations, where reviving the peace process is becoming a top agenda item at the Security Council.

Speaking at the same commemoration event, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the international body’s reputation was “badly damaged” by the adoption of a resolution 40 years earlier which proclaimed Zionism as racism.

“Today, as we come together to commemorate the revocation of resolution 3379, our focus must be on the many manifestations of hatred and intolerance that blight the global landscape — resurgent anti-Semitism, wide-ranging anti-Muslim bigotry and attacks, discrimination against migrants and refugees,” said Ban at the event, which was sponsored by the Israeli mission to the UN, the American Jewish Committee and the Chaim Herzog Public Council.

“We must do all we can to bring a just resolution to the Middle East conflict, to protect the viability of the two-State solution and enable Israelis and Palestinians alike to live in security and peace,” Ban said.

Council members are weighing a draft resolution, presented by New Zealand, that declares the two-state solution as “the only credible pathway to peace” and demands that both sides prepare for new talks.

International diplomats desperately want to revive peace talks to avoid a slide into more violence that many fear could lead to a third Palestinian intifada.

A weeks-long wave of violence has claimed the lives of 11 Israelis and 77 Palestinians. Many of the Palestinian dead were terrorists killed in the act of attacking Israelis.