By Elise Labott and Theodore Schleifer, CNN, December 27, 2016

Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver a speech Wednesday on the Obama administration's vision for Middle East peace, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

The speech at the State Department comes as the relationship between the US and Israel frays following the Obama administration's controversial decision to abstain on Friday from a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Kerry said at the time that, "In the coming days, I will speak further to the vote in the Security Council today and share more detailed thoughts, drawn from the experience of the last several years, on the way ahead."

Any vision painted by Kerry though will be short-lasting: In less than a month, Kerry will leave the State Department and the Donald Trump administration -- which has promised to not allow snubs like this to happen again -- will take over. Toner said at a press briefing Tuesday that Kerry would "touch on" the Israel situation but the speech would be more broadly about the politics of region. Toner said Kerry would also explain how the resolution's message would be implemented and outline America's "next steps" -- even though the clock is ticking on the administration.

"I don't want to lean into it that there's going to be some kind of push behind this," Toner said. "I think this is, again, Secretary Kerry sharing his vision for how we can resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned the US ambassador and launched a scathing attack on the Obama administration after its refusal to veto the UN Security Council resolution.

The United States abstained on the resolution, allowing it to pass, rather than vetoing it -- as it usually does with resolutions it sees as overly critical of Israel, leading to US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro being summoned, an Israeli official told CNN Sunday.

In an interview with Israeli Channel 2 television Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said, "What Secretary Kerry will be doing is he will give a speech in which he lays out a comprehensive vision for how we see the conflict being resolved -- where we see things in 2016 as we unfortunately conclude our term in office without there being significant progress toward peace."

Kerry had planned to give the speech last Thursday, when the vote was originally planned. Those plans got scrapped after the proposal's original sponsor, Egypt, forced a delay, for a day.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/politics/j...plan/index.html

I can't imagine a more delusional pair of wannabees than this duo of Obama/Kerry. They couldn't get it done while on their own shift but they want to taint the future for a Trump administration to come in and make peace. How can Israel have ANY HOPE of peace when Hezbollah leaders control the Palestinians? TM

a little more on the subject...

BREAKING: Israel Pleads for Trump’s Help After Obama Ambush, Trump Call Egyptian President and Changes EVERYTHING

When Egypt was about to sponsor a resolution before the United Nations condemning Israel over settlements and the Obama administration wasn’t going to anything, President-elect Donald Trump sprung into action. And while the anti-Israel resolution still passed, Trump still managed to show that he was able to take care of the Jewish state in a way Obama never would.

According to The Washington Post, while the resolution was eventually re-sponsored by other governments, Trump was able to convince the Egyptian government to withdraw their sponsorship of it.

“On Friday, Egypt said its president had received a call from Trump in which they both agreed to give the incoming U.S. administration a chance to try and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The call came hours after Egypt indefinitely postponed the U.N. vote,” The Washington Post said.

A statement from Egypt said that after Trump spoke with the president, they agreed upon “the importance of giving a chance for the new American administration to deal in a comprehensive way with the different aspects of the Palestinian issue with the aim of achieving a comprehensive and a final resolution.”

In spite of all that, Obama decided not to give the new administration a chance to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, abstaining on the vote when the resolution came up and thus allowing it to pass, according to The New York Times.

In other words, Egypt is apparently more willing to work with Donald Trump and Israel than the Obama administration is. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.

http://conservativetribune.com/trump-help-obama-ambush/