Secretary of State John Kerry's nine-month effort to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement hit a bump when he was recorded making a comment that provoked a political firestorm in Washington, according to the Associated Press.
In a closed meeting with foreign policy experts, Kerry said that if there is no two-state solution soon, Israel risked becoming "an apartheid state," the AP reported. But on Monday night, Kerry said in a statement that he never said, or suggested, that Israel was currently an apartheid state.
Kerry was apparently referring to an argument made by liberal Israelis and European critics that if two states are not created and current demographic trends continue, Palestinians will outnumber Israelis, according to the AP.
"A unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens," Kerry said on Friday, the AP reported. "Or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state."
To skeptics, it was Kerry, the egotistical former presidential candidate, committing yet another gaffe, according to the AP. After months of pursuing an ambitious Middle East peace settlement, Kerry was blaming Israel for his own failure.
Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, called Kerry's statement "nonsensical and ridiculous." Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, called for Kerry to resign, the AP reported.
To Kerry's defenders, it was a high-risk, high reward Secretary of State speaking the truth about the need for a two-state solution, according to the AP.
And on Tuesday, his aides stood by the remarks, which they said was nothing more than Kerry reiterating a warning voiced by liberal Israeli politicians such as Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak for years, the AP reported.
"He said what Livni, Olmert and Barak all said," a senior State Department official close to Kerry said on Tuesday, according to the AP.
Instead of admitting failure, aides said Kerry would continue his Mideast negotiations after a pause of several months, the AP reported.
