Again, were waiting for secretary john kerry to come out and talk about the future of Foreign Policy in the middle east in the trump administration. Lieberman injoe the audience there today. Live coverage here in here from the Brookings Institution center in washington, d. C. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [indiscernible chatter] announcer so if you just joined us, we are waiting for secretary of state john kerry to come out. He will talk about the future of u. S. Policy in the middle east and the trump administration. We got the four minute warning about 10 minutes ago. As these events tend to run, we should get started shortly. Live coverage from the Brookings Institution center here in washington. [indiscernible chatter] [applause] mr. Goldberg mr. Secretary, thank you very much for joining us again today. This is the fourth form you have addressed, one for each year of the tenure that you have had at the secretary of state. It is just one expression of the on your part,ment the relationship between the United States and israel. The privilege of directly working for you for 14 months. You might remember that. I certainly do. [laughter] sec. Kerry [inaudible] one thing i have learned from the up close experience with you is your commitment to israel. A few telling examples. For 30 years as u. S. Senator from massachusetts, you had a perfect voting record on israel. You promoted the unprecedented 30 billion the 38 billion agreement for the next decade. You have brought unbelievable passion and energy to the effort to achieve secure peace train israel and the palestinians. With one hand tied behind your back, you managed to secure an agreement that removed and syrianed the vast of chemical weapons. Then you went on to negotiate a deal for irans enrichment program, ship out Nuclear Material and soft to the core of its heavy Nuclear Reaction reactor. The deal was hugely controversial but today, for the next decade at least, israel is much safer with the deal than it would have been without it. It is in the nature of the job of secretary of state that you do not get to finish all that you have started. What matters is you are in the arena, always fighting for peace, always fighting for security, always fighting for american values, and our interest. Rabbiis a verse from a that many in this audience will know. It goes like this. The labor vast. The workers are weary. It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world. But neither can you desist from it. Mr. Secretary, you have never the task, from columbia to the Central African republican every other conflict in between, especially the israelipalestinian conflict. Care deeplyhat, we about the United States, israel, and the relationship between these two democratic allies. We want to express our heartfelt thanks. [applause] sec. Kerry thank you. That is really wonderful. Mr. Goldberg i am going to unveil a plaque we made for you for the occasion. Im the unveiling in chief here. Who paid for this, brookings or me . It looks really expensive, doesnt it . [laughter] not aldberg there is more deserving person than this guy right here. [applause] mr. Goldberg you cannot read it. John f kerry,le 58 secretary of state for his for a strong relationship between the United States and israel, a deep appreciation, you did not know but now you do, and the Brookings Institution. I want to say thank you. Thank you so much. For all you have done. [applause] sec. Kerry thank you. Thank you. Mr. Goldberg good afternoon, everyone. I will jump right in before we raise some before i of the easy questions, i wanted to ask you about some of the events in the freight the previous few days. President elect trump has made diplomatic innovations on the pakistan front, the taiwan front, the philippine front. I am simply stating truth, i wanted to ask you if you are at trumprried that the Transition Team will instigate national while you are still in charge and if you are still in contact with them at all about managing the transition process. [laughter] thank you, jeff. Thank you very much. Mr. Goldberg inquiring minds want to know. Sec. Kerry i know. I am working to stay 1000 miles away from the trump transition in the process. It is important for me to be finalo brief whoever the nominee will be and i do not want to come at it with any engagement on any of the choices they are making publicly. Me tok it is better for stay out of the politics that i have stayed out of for four years. Idid not go to the race and did not go to the convention and im prohibited by law. Fine. Ldberg that is what i expected but i was hoping for more. Let me pivot to the main subject of the forum, possibilities for peace in the middle east. In may of 2013 in the outset of the most recent process, you solution hadstate 1824 months. If you could not achieve it in 1820 months, it would be too late. Out from thatrs date. Is it too late for the two state solution . Sec. Kerry that is a really good question and it is one that will bake a little bit more lengthy and answer than i might have anticipated starting out with here. Can i begin just by saying thank you to all of you and thank you to very much for your incredibly generous efforts and your public citizenship through this enterprise. Thank you to all of you for your interest and working for this complicated and perplexing at times. Aso not think it has to be everybody is making it, but those are choices of leadership. I want to weave into the answer of to your question some thought. That question and the possibilities in the answers to centraltill very much to my thinking and what i want to share with you here today. Saying you know, i do feel really passionate, generous genuinely passionate about israel. The land of milk and honey. Ago thatout 120 years the first Zionist Convention took place in basel. 100 years ago that the declaration was laid out. Weyears ago that i think resolution 181, which led to the formation of a jewett stayed in the state of israel. Of course, 50 years since the sixday war. These are all very important demarcation points. I think you have to stop and go back and look at the first look reread others who define zionism, and trying tot what was be achieved in the establishment of this beautiful thing close to israel, a place where the george people had their identity or the state was defined by that and history, it was a place where people could be protected, where they had a nationstate signed by place which was an example to the world of democracy and freedom and rights , rule of law. It is a great concept. It was in the movie the greatest story ever told. It is the greatest story ever told. But it is not finished. The end of the story has not yet been written. I believe what i said. The timing, you can fight about where we are in the process that i will tell you there is no status quo. It is getting worse. It is moving in the wrong direction. I do not know how to explain the friendship of barack obama and john kerry and this administration more than what the history shows, notwithstanding this disagreement over the iran agreement. Which, as martin said, nobody says today doesnt at least give you 10 to 15 years. I happen to believe it is a lifetime because we will know if and when they ever enrich above , we will know instantaneously if they have more minds because we are tracking the mining. After 25 years and then afterwards, a lifetime agreement , inspections, advanced protocol. Am confident our Defense Department is confident. If they pick up. That does not mean they will not. In which case, every option we have today will be available to us then. What we have is an opportunity to redefine the middle east, to redefine the region. To meet security needs of israel, and the security needs of the rest of the region. I spent four years now at the most intensive effort. I asked my staff to go back and read the record. I have spoken to netanyahu more than 375 times in this term. Those are only the republic recordings the public recordings. I have talked to him in those public transactions more than 130 hours. My wife accused me of having talked to him more than having talked to her this for years. These four years. Ive traveled 40 times or something, i met him in rome for eight hours at a time, i have met him in new york and israel, jerusalem, tel aviv, everywhere. New york, multiple times, so forth. And we are friends, we really are. I knew him back when we were sharing coffee at the charles hotel, when he was spending some time there at harvard, and we stayed friendly all the time. I was there the night he was elected. I remember him talking about what he was going to do and what we were going to do. I remember him saying to me if you are ever in a position of responsibility, we could really Work Together and get something done. I look forward to doing that. But here we are. Now. I speak asion where an unapologetic friend of israel. Lost while the Obama Administration put 23. 5 three and dollars on the line for Foreign Military financing, more than 50 of the total that we give to the entire world. That has gone to israel. Just signed an agreement for 38 million over 10 years. 3. 1. Nd dollars per year up we have never ever shied away from vetoing a resolution or standing up against an unfair at thesed resolution u. N. , at the human rights council, you name it. Many times, my friends, alone, the only nation in the world, we were there. Becausel of this to you i want you to understand that i want to be very clear about my passion for this stream, for the entity, for the democracy, for the example, for the beauty of bet israel was designed to and should represent to the world and what everybody hopes that it is and will be on any given day. But here, i have to tell you the truth. I have to share with you fax. Facts and describe to you why i am concerned. I come to you as somebody who is concerned for the safety and security of the state of israel. For the longterm ability of israel to be able to be what it has dreamt of paying and what the people of israel i believe wanted to be. I am here as somebody defending israels need for security, and any number of ways i believe we can do that that we can talk about the let me point out a few things. The questions i raise about dont are not because we care about israel. It is because we do care. We want to be able to see this into the full blossomed begin it has the potential of being. Enormous agricultural skills, technology skills. Finance and innovation, all of this capacity , which it could be sharing with egypt, with jordan, with saudi arabia, and all of these countries. Who talk to me about their desire to do that sharing. Is, how do you get from here to there . There is a fundamental choice that comes from the question. Let me ask, raise your hand, i know some of you may not want to would knowledge it, and how many of you believe in a two state solution . You believe to states is critical . It is the vast majority. How many of you dont or are willing to say so. Ust one hand up maybe a few of you dont want to say. All right. So the question for all of us is we have traveled for the last 100 years. The question is what will the next 100 years look like . Where are we going . You, let me tell you a few things i have learned for sure in the last few years. There will be no separate piece basic between israel and the arab world. I want to make it clear to all of you. I have heard several prominent politicians and israel sometimes saying, the art world is in a different place now and we just have to reach out to them and we can work some is with the arab world and we will deal with the palestinians. No. No. And no. Reaffirmedyou that even in the last week as i have spoken with leaders of the arab community. Advance ande no separate peace with the arab World Without the palestinian process and the palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality. Secondly, i begin with the proposition that the palestinians have major responsibilities to contribute to the process, some of which they have not fulfilled. On capacity, we can run the list. But this is a u. S. Israeli forum. I want to talk about what the u. S. And israel can do in answer to jeffs really important and probing question. There is a basic choice that has to be made by israelis, by the leadership of israel. By all of you who supported israel and care about israel. Is, theyre either are going to be continued settlements, continued implementation of some policy, or is there going to be separation and the creation of two states . The reason i put the question to you is the following. When signed in 1993, the vision ,as with the signing of oslo there is area a, b, c. Palestinian security and administrative control, area b is justit and area c israel, security, and administrative still. The deal in 1993 was, over the cxt year and a half, area would be transferred to administrative control. It did not happen for a number of reasons. But back in 1993, there were 110,000 settlers in the west bank. Are 385,500 or so. There was about 90,000 settlers living outside the barrier and the barrier i want to remind everyone here, was established israel. It is a line, security line. Drawn byf that line israel, there are now 90,000 israelis living in the patch works of settlements. There are 129 settlements. There are about 100 outposts. Tomorrow night, there will be a vote which will decide whether or not 54 of those illegal legalizedill be within months. Some 31in addition to who have already been in the legalese legalization process or legalized. I believe 19 have been legalized, 12 are in the process. 85 of the 100 are about to be legalized. These outposts begin as one and what is really concerning about what is about to happen is that many of these outposts, most of them are built on what is considered to be palestinian private land. , since obama became president the population outside the barrier in the west bank has increased by 20,000 people. Israel are fond of saying the settlements and other reason or the cause. No, they are not. I am not pretending that. Im not here to tell you the settlement is the reason for the conflict. No they are not. Notionannot accept the they dont affect the peace process. That they are not a barrier to the capacity to have peace. I will tell you why i know that, because the left in israel is telling everyone they are a barrier to peace in the right that supports it openly supports it because they dont want. Peace. They believe it is the greater israel. They are pursuing a policy of greater judeo samaria, building out into the west bank. They want to block the piece because they want those places to belong to israel. That is the history of the settler movement, my friends. Outi can say to you is that of the mouse of mouths and ministers have become disturbing statements. Ago, thisa few days represents the end of the era of the two state solution. And more than 50 of the ministers and the current government have publicly stated they are opposed to a palestinian state and it will be no palestinian state. This is where we find ourselves. Mr. Goldberg i was talking to Lindsey Graham about you. He said thing about john kerry is if you burn his house down and shoot his dog, he will put you down is undecided. Even the most optimistic american who has ever lived in americans are optimistic people. You just described a situation in which you lost, the site you side youating for are advocating for, you describe the situation in 1993, thats one thing and in 2016 its a different thing. Let me answer that. Mr. Goldberg have we not passed the Tipping Point already . Sec. Kerry we are getting i will tell you what. This is a function of leadership, a function of believe, of what choices are being put to the people. Mr. Goldberg you know how hard it is to be 10,000 settlers from gaza. Sec. Kerry they dont have to move depending on what the situation is, what you choose to have is your outcome. Let me give you the alternatives, folks. If youre sitting there saying i want israel to be the israel ive always dreamed and said it was, that is democratic. State. Is also a today there are about six point whatever millions use living between the mediterranean and the jordan valley, but there are more arabs living between the distance. What is your vision of a unitary state . Are you going to run the schools . Are you going to have the roads that are completely check pointed and blocked that lead to this Little Island all by itself of the settlement . And the palestinians are going to live over here . Are they going to vote . If they are a majority, will they have a palestinian Prime Minister . The answer is no. No and no and no. That is not a choice that is been put to the people of israel, im just telling you. This is the choice that is input there. Everyone says the palestinians we dont have a partner or the ability to negotiate or the ability to be able to resolve the Security Issues with israel. I dont agree with that. We worked we did work no administration has ever done. John allen, we had wanted to 50 people from our Defense Department working with the idf, the mossad, actor Security ExpertsSecurity Experts from israel. Irs many of you to talk to security folks in israel. Nice, longbe a conversation with people that spend their lifetimes defending the security of israel and see what they say you about longterm security capacity for the country. There is a strong, strong base within the security establishment that believes you have to resolve this question with the arab world and the palestinians. How do yout do that, allow the arab street ultimately come to grips with the future of the region . Moreover, i am convinced, and i say this to everybody that the conversations ive had in the arab world do indicate the arab world is ready to move into a different kind of security posture. But to get there you have got to have a serious negotiation and begin somewhere. Where is the United States and that . Our position has been 1967 lines, not the position of the current government. Even the american position, whi