WASHINGTON: Israel is turning to a place of danger and the country must choose between constructing illegal settlements in the West Bank and a two-state solution, US Secretary of State John Kerry said here on Sunday.
“Israel is opting out the chances for a real and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace on account of the continued settlement process,” Kerry said while speaking in the Saban Forum in Washington, DC.
He said that Israel’s settlement policy narrows the prospects of peace, but noted that the “tipping point regarding the two-state solution” has not been crossed.
“I’m not here to say that settlements are the reason for the conflict. No, they’re not,” he continued. “But I also cannot accept the notion that they’re not a barrier to peace.”
He said there is no status quo adding it is getting worse. It is moving in the wrong direction. It defies the imagination that you’re going to have a Jewish state with a unitary state, he added.
