Benjamin Netanyahu responds to John Kerry's 'unbalanced' speech

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he had to express his "deep disappointment" in U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's earlier speech promoting a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, saying it was "almost as unbalanced as the anti-Israel resolution passed at the U.N. last week."

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank a "flagrant violation" of international law, with the U.S. abstaining from the vote. A bitter Netanyahu said Kerry "paid lip service to the unremitting campaign of terrorism that has been waged by the Palestinians against the Jewish state for nearly a century. What he did was spend most of his speech blaming Israel for the lack of peace by passionately condemning a policy of enabling Jews to live in their historic homeland and in their eternal capital, Jerusalem."

Netanyahu said Israel has always "extended its hand in peace" to neighbors, and "thousands of Israeli families have paid the ultimate sacrifice to defend our country and advance peace," adding, Israelis "do not need to be lectured on the importance of peace by foreign leaders." He said that Palestinian children are not being educated "for peace" like Israeli children, and the Palestinian Authority "teaches them to lionize terrorists and murder Israelis. My vision is that Israelis and Palestinians both have a future of mutual respect, coexistence, but the Palestinian Authority tells them they will never accept and should never accept the existence of a Jewish state."

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Netanyahu also claimed he has evidence that the United States "organized and advanced" the U.N. Security Council resolution, but he is refusing to share it with anyone but the incoming Trump administration, saying some of the material is "sensitive." This allegation has already been denied by Kerry.