Prefacing his remarks with a personal disclaimer about being an “unapologetic friend of Israel,” US Secretary of State John Kerry went on to deliver one of the harshest critiques of Israeli policy ever presented by a sitting SecState. The setting was a forum in Washington, D.C. organized by the NGO founded by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban. Presumably seeing the event as a last chance to air four years of frustration, Kerry took a no-holds barred approach and lectured Israeli leadership, saying it does not favor a “two-state solution, and therefore is “ignoring all our warnings regarding settlements.” At issue is the construction of Israeli communities on land Israel conquered in the 1967 war – land that the Palestinians claim for its future state. Since 1967, several hundred thousand Israelis have made their homes in the West Bank, which they refer to by the Biblical names “Judea” and “Samaria,” while the Palestinians insist that the lynchpin of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the “settlement issue.” Israel disagrees and points to the creation of Palestinian terrorist organizations well before the 1967 war created the issue of Israeli control over the areas claimed by the Palestinians. Most who are familiar with the region’s dynamics argue that there is a tacit understanding between the Israelis and Palestinians that when a deal is reached, Israel will withdraw from all of Judea and Samaria with the exception of three so-called “settlement blocs” the land-mass of which will be compensated with other land. The Israeli side of the conflict also rejects the assertion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most problematic of a litany of Middle East conflicts. They argue that settling the Israeli-Palestinian track will have no effect on Syria, Sunni vs. Shiite, Yemen, and so on. Secretary Kerry devoted a great deal of time and personal prestige in trying to broker a peace deal between the parties during his four years as SecState, but ultimately failed. His speech was important as well because of its timing with the clock counting down on the Obama administration and Mideast observers wondering whether President Obama will do something dramatic before he leaves office. If so, most expect US support for a strong UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli building in post-1967 territories — in what would be a stunning turn of events for the US-Israel relationship, the US would withhold its veto. Most believe Kerry left the door open for that to happen when he told the Saban Forum that the administration has not yet decided on its course of action.