We present the Jewish opinions of Netanyahu and the opposing one of the Neturei Karta -an anti-Zionist Jewish group.
Afterwards we have an article on John Kerry.
JTA
Netanyahu: UN Security Council resolution makes negotiations harder, drives peace further away
http://www.jta.org/2016/12/25/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/netanyahu-security-council-resolution-makes-negotiations-harder-drives-peace-further-away
JERUSALEM (JTA) — “Friends don’t take friends to the Security Council,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his government.
Netanyahu made the remark Sunday at the weekly Cabinet meeting two days after the United States abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israel for continued settlement building. In a break from the norm, Netanyahu offered some of his remarks in English, presumably in order to make sure they would be properly understood by the U.S.
“Over decades, American administrations and Israeli governments had disagreed about settlements, but we agreed that the Security Council was not the place to resolve this issue. We knew that going there would make negotiations harder and drive peace further away,” Netanyahu said.
“I’m encouraged by the statements of our friends in the United States, Republicans and Democrats alike. They understand how reckless and destructive this UN resolution was, they understand that the Western Wall isn’t occupied territory. I look forward to working with those friends and with the new administration when it takes office next month.”
In Hebrew, Netanyahu told the Cabinet that there is “no doubt” that in relation to the resolution passed Friday, the Obama administration “initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed.”
Netanyahu called it a “complete contradiction of the traditional American policy that was committed to not trying to dictate terms for a permanent agreement … [and] the explicit commitment of President Obama himself, in 2011, to refrain from such steps.”
He called on the government ministers to “act prudently, responsibly and calmly, in both actions and words.”
Netanyahu ordered Israel’s ambassadors from Senegal and New Zealand, the two cosponsors of the resolution with which Israel has diplomatic relations, recalled for consultation. He also ordered a halt to Israeli assistance to Senegal and threatened more sanctions...
... Prior to the Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu reportedly told lawmakers from his Likud party that Obama may have other actions prepared to take against Israel on the Palestinian issue before he leaves office in three weeks, and called on them to not comment publicly on the issue.
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Shafaqna News
Statement in Reaction to U.N. Security Council Resolution Condemning Israeli Settlements – NETUREI KARTA
December 27, 2016
http://en.shafaqna.com/news/41047
On behalf of anti-Zionist Jews worldwide, we of Neturei Karta International, Jews United Against Zionism, greet with enthusiasm the recent United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements as illegal. For decades, the settlements have been a major cause for bloodshed and unrest in the Holy Land. Hundreds of innocent lives have been sacrificed on the altar of nationalism and lust for land.
We congratulate the countries in the Security Council for taking this long-overdue step toward justice and peace. And in particular, we congratulate the President of the State of Palestine, His Excllency Mahmoud Abbas, on his success in achieving the passage of this resolution. At the same time, we wish to reiterate the Torah position that it is not just the West Bank that is illegally occupied. Jews have been sent into exile by the Almighty, and any kind of Jewish sovereignty over any territory is a violation of that decree. Therefore the concept of the State of Israel is entirely illegitimate and forbidden. The crime is compounded when the creation of this homeland entails the occupation, oppression, subjugation and expulsion of another people.
Before the era of Zionism, Jews lived in Palestine in peace and security, side by side with the Palestinian Arab population. We fervently hope for the day when Jews return to abiding by the laws of the Torah and living in peace with all peoples. As Jews, we have always been especially pained by the actions of the State of Israel in general, and the radical settlers in particular, since they claim to be acting in our name. Predictably, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has reacted with anger to this clear demonstration of unanimous world opinion against his state’s crimes. Drawing on Jewish themes, he has cast himself in the role of the Maccabee fighters whose victories we celebrate on Chanukah, and the Security Council nations as their enemies. Let no one be fooled.
The State of Israel has nothing to do with Judaism, and on the contrary, it has consistently tried to extinguish Torah observance and values. The Torah values life and service of the Almighty, while Zionism values land conquest and secular culture. The Maccabees did not go to battle for freedom or independence; they wanted only the right to continue to practice Judaism. If any comparison is to be made to the Chanukah story, it is of Netanyahu and his fellow Zionists to the enemies of the Jewish people in the time of the Maccabees.
Netanyahu has vowed to continue building settlements, but we appeal to the world to realize that the Jewish people in general are not behind him. This show of defiance against the world community and the United States for taking up a just cause is completely against the Torah. American Orthodox Jews in particular, as loyal citizens enjoined by the Torah to respect their president, are embarrassed and completely disgusted by Netanyahu and his supporters’ vicious attacks on President Obama. We also wish to state that the Zionists have no right to control the Western Wall and other holy sites of Jerusalem. All claims the Israeli government makes to these places are baseless.
Furthermore, the recent U.N. General Assembly resolution that the State of Israel has no right to impose its laws on these places, in no way detracts from the holiness of these sites in the eyes of Jews. In these days of Chanukah, may the Almighty send a spirit of repentance into Jewish hearts, so that they look into the Torah and resolve to follow its guidance. And may we be privileged to see peace in the Middle East and the entire world. Amen.
**
The Guardian
Kerry defends US decision not to veto UN resolution against Israeli settlements
US secretary of state pushes two-state solution and criticises Netanyahu in toughest remarks on Israel by a US official in years
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/28/kerry-defends-us-decision-to-not-veto-un-condemnation-of-israeli-settlements
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has offered a blistering defence of the US decision to allow a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements, saying if Washington had vetoed it, Israel would have been given a licence for “unfettered settlement construction” and the end of the peace process.
Framing a two-state solution as “the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, Kerry took aim at the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for building a coalition that was “the most rightwing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements”...
... Pushing back at Israel’s fury over the US abstention , Kerry pointedly questioned Netanyahu’s commitment to Palestinian statehood , asking whether Israelis believed their interests were best served by the recent attacks on the Obama administration by Israeli leaders.
Kerry also offered a bleak vision of the risk of the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the two-state solution, describing the alternative one-state solution in the darkest terms.
“Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea,” Kerry told his audience of diplomats in Washington, out lining the demographic reality on the ground that would colour the future of a unitary state.
“[Israelis and Palestinians] have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state, or they can separate into two states.
“Despite our best efforts over the years, the two-state solution is now in serious jeopardy … We cannot, in good conscience, do nothing, and say nothing, when we see the hope of peace slipping away.
“If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both, and it won’t ever really be at peace. ”
Kerry also took the opportunity to forcefully deny Israeli accusations that the Obama administration had been behind the drafting of the resolution amid Israeli accusations that the US colluded with the Palestinians .
The US, insisted Kerry, “did not draft or originate” the UN resolution, adding : “ Nor did we put it forward [in the UN].”
“The United States did in fact vote in accordance with our values, just as previous administrations have done,” Kerry said during the speech at the US State Department. “The vote in the United Nations was about preserving the two-state solution. That’s what we were standing up for.”
Kerry outlined a series of principles he said should form the basis of a future peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians, with the likely participation of the U S, including a “secure and recognised border” between Israel and the new nation of Palestine...
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