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| U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks on Middle East peace at the Department of State in Washington December 28, 2016. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan |
Britain scolded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli
history, a move that aligns Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with
President-elect Donald Trump.
After U.S. President Barack Obama enraged Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by refusing to veto a UN Security Council
resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Kerry's public
rebuke of Israel has unsettled some allies such as Britain.
Amid one of the United States' sharpest confrontations with
Israel since the 1956 Suez crisis, Kerry said in a speech that Israel
jeopardizeds hopes of peace in the Middle East by building settlements in the
occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
While Britain voted for the UN resolution that so angered
Netanyahu and says that settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, a
spokesman for May said that it was clear that the settlements were far from the
only problem in the conflict.
In an unusually sharp public rebuke of Obama's top diplomat,
May's spokesman said that Israel had coped for too long with the threat of
terrorism and that focusing only on the settlements was not the best way to
achieve peace between Jew and Arab.
London also took particular issue with Kerry's description of
Netanyahu's coalition as "the most right-wing in Israeli history, with an
agenda driven by its most extreme elements."
"We do not believe that it is appropriate to attack the
composition of the democratically-elected government of an ally," May's
spokesman said when asked about Kerry 70-minute speech in the State
Department's auditorium.
The U.S. State Department said it was surprised by the
remarks from May's office and said Kerry's comments were in line with Britain's
own policy. It pointedly also thanked Germany, France, Canada, Jordan, Egypt,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates for support.
TRUMP AND MAY?
Britain has long cherished its so-called "special
relationship" with the United States as a central pillar of its foreign
policy, but May has struggled to build relations with Trump's transition team.
Following his election, Trump spoke to nine other world
leaders before he spoke to May while he caused astonishment in London when he
suggested that Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage should be Britain's ambassador to
Washington.
By openly criticising Kerry, who will leave office in just
weeks, May moves British policy closer to Trump than its other European allies
such as Germany and France.
Trump has denounced the Obama administration's treatment of
Israel and promised to change course when he is sworn in on Jan. 20.
"We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such
total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but
not anymore," Trump said in a series of tweets. "Stay strong Israel,
January 20th is fast approaching!"
Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has
come out in favour of the Kerry speech while France holds a Middle East
conference next month in Paris.
But Australia has distanced itself from Obama's stance on
Israel, ABC reported.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was convinced
peace with Israel was achievable but demanded that Israel halt settlement
building before talks restarted.
ISRAEL
Netanyahu has been witheringly critical of Kerry’s
speech. In a statement released shortly after it was delivered, Netanyahu
accused Kerry of bias and said Israel did not need to be lectured to by foreign
leaders.
Netanyahu said he looked forward to working with Trump.
Kerry "obsessively dealt with settlements", Netanyahu
said in his response, and barely touched "the root of the conflict –
Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state in any boundaries."
In Israel, Kerry’s speech has played into the hands of Israel’s
far-right national-religious movement, led by Naftali Bennett, the education
minister, who is in Netanyahu’s cabinet but very critical of Netanyahu and is
trying to position himself as a future potential leader.
Bennett’s party, Jewish Home, wants to annexe large parts of the
West Bank and openly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state. He is
advocating for more settlements and the legalisation of outpost settlements,
which even the Israeli government considers illegal.
"This [Obama] administation's policy has left the Middle
East up in flames," Bennett said after Kerry's speech. "The one free
democracy has been thrown under the bus - and that's Israel."
(Additional reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-britain-idUSKBN14J0L0