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Donald Trump tells Benjamin Netanyahu to 'stay strong' as US tells Israel the 'hard truth'

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Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump and US chief diplomat John Kerry have taken explosively different tacks on Israel, further fuelling a war of words over the country's future.

Trump tweeted messages on Wednesday showing his support for Israel and accusing President Barack Obama of making inflammatory statements and damaging relations between Israel and the United States. Trump tweeted that he could no longer allow Israel to be treated with disdain and urged Israel to "stay strong" until he takes office on January 20.

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Kerry pleas for two-state solution in Israel

The two-state solution is in "serious jeopardy" says Secretary of State John Kerry, just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised the US for failing to veto a UN resolution criticising Jewish settlements in Palestinian lands.

In response Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted: "President-elect Trump, thank you for your warm friendship and your clear-cut support for Israel."

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The tweet included Israeli and US flags and, in an unusual move, tagged two of Trump's children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump jnr.

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The messages came hours before US Secretary of State Kerry delivered a speech outlining the Obama administration's vision for resolving the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Kerry warned Netanyahu the Israeli government was undermining any hope of a two-state solution to its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians, and said that the US vote in the United Nations last week was driven by an effort to save Israel from "the most extreme elements" in its own government.

"Some seem to believe that the US friendship means the US must accept any policy, regardless of our own interests, our own positions, our own words, our own principles - even after urging again and again that the policy must change," he said. "Friends need to tell each other the hard truths, and friendships require mutual respect," Kerry said in sharp contrast to his usually measured speeches.

With only 23 days left as secretary of state, Kerry, the former presidential candidate who made the search for peace in the Middle East one of the driving missions of his four years as secretary, spoke with clear frustration about Netanyahu's continued support of settlements "strategically placed in locations that make two states impossible".

But he spoke knowing that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump may well abandon the key principles that the United States has used for decades of Middle East negotiations.

"The status quo is leading toward one state, or perpetual occupation," Kerry said, his voice animated. He argued that Israel, with a growing Arab population, could not survive as both a Jewish state and a democratic state unless it embraced the two-state approach that a succession of US presidents have advocated.

The speech came at a moment of tension between the United States and Israel, on a scale rarely seen since president Harry Truman recognised the fragile Israeli state in May 1948. In a direct response to Netanyahu's barb over the weekend that "friends don't take friends to the Security Council," a reference to the Obama administration's decision to abstain from a resolution condemning the building of new settlements in occupied territory, Kerry said the US acted out of a deeper understanding of the alliance.

Kerry usually speaks in the careful words of diplomacy, being careful not to publicly name names, or put choices in the harshest terms. He dropped most of those niceties on Wednesday, especially about Netanyahu's government.

"The Israeli prime minister publicly supports a two-state solution, but his current coalition is the most right-wing in Israeli history, with an agenda driven by its most extreme elements," he said. "The result is that policies of this government - which the prime minister himself just described as 'more committed to settlements than any in Israel's history' - are leading in the opposite direction, towards one state."

Netanyahu reacted by delivering an angry statement at a late-night press conference where he said "Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders", the Associated Press reported.

"We are not about to be swayed by a mistaken policy that could cause big, big damage," he added vowing to work with the incoming Trump administration to contain the fallout from the UN resolution.

It was a remarkable moment in the US-Israeli relationship, and it was a remarkable moment for Kerry.

With his presidential hopes dashed after his loss to George W. Bush in the 2004 election, Kerry saw his time as secretary of state as a chance to make a true change in the Middle East. In three weeks, his near-constant travels around the world will end and his energetic diplomacy will suddenly terminate. He has one major accomplishment under his belt - the Iran nuclear deal - but he could not achieve his goals on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, or in the Syrian conflict.

Kerry cast himself as one of Israel's greatest friends, and cited a lifelong commitment to the country. But he said he had to "save the two-state solution while there was still time".

"We did not take this decision lightly," he said of the UN vote.

Netanyahu, who personally rang Security Council chair New Zealand with dire warnings to try to stop the vote, has accused the US of "orchestrating" the vote, and his aides have said that Kerry and Obama effectively stabbed Israel in the back. Israeli officials have said they have evidence that the United States organised the resolution, which the State Department denies.

Netanyahu has lashed out at Security Council members by curbing diplomatic contacts, recalling envoys, cutting off aid and summoning the US ambassador for a scolding. Netanyahu has publicly called it a "shameful anti-Israel resolution".

Kerry wanted to deliver Wednesday's speech more than two years ago, current and former aides say. But he was blocked from doing so by the White House, which saw little value in further angering Netanyahu, who has opposed any speech that might limit Israel's negotiating room or become the basis for a UN Security Council resolution to guide the terms of a "final status" deal.

In Washington, congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle distanced themselves from the speech.

In Europe, however, Kerry's speech was greeted warmly, with officials calling it a courageous and thoughtful effort to salvage the idea of a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians. Across the Arab world, it was met with a collective shrug.

Nathalie Goulet, vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the French Senate, said Kerry "is right, he is absolutely right".

"The more there are settlements," she said, "the less it is likely there will be a two-state solution. But nobody ever dares condemn Israel. There is a double standard that nourishes the propaganda of the terrorists."

In a statement, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier praised Kerry's speech as a "passionate and deeply convincing" defence of "the only credible way" to solve the issue: a two-state solution.

British officials said they regarded Kerry's speech as a thoughtful summary of long-standing British and European concerns about the direction of Israeli politics.

In the Arab world, analysts said the Obama administration should have spoken out sooner.

"At the last five minutes of the hour, apparently Kerry and Obama are showing some courage to stand up to Israel, but it is coming too late in the game," said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of political science in the United Arab Emirates. "They should have shown this amount of political courage four years ago, if not eight years ago."

New York Times, Washington Post

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