John Kerry, Benjamin Netanyahu clash angrily about peace

Secretary of State John F. Kerry launched a rhetorical broadside against Israel Wednesday, saying Washington could not “protect or defend” the country should Tel Aviv continue to balk at two-state peace plans with Palestinians. His comments drew swift and sharp rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who chided Mr. Kerry by saying Israelis did “not need to be lectured” about peace by the outgoing administration, while President-elect Donald Trump weighed in even before the speech was given with a strong support for Mr. Netanyahu and Israel, and vowing his incoming administration would take a sharply different approach. It was an extraordinary and extraordinarily public division between two longtime allies, one that could have lasting and incalculable consequences for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Washington’s traditional role as an honest broker and the main outside power in the Middle East peace process. Mr. Kerry’s 70-minute speech, much of it devoted to a critique of the Netanyahu government’s policies, came a week after the Obama administration broke with longstanding U.S. practice and refused to veto a U.N. Security Council Resolution characterizing Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory as a “flagrant violation of international law.” Please click to read the rest of the story from Calos Munoz of the Washington Times…