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, even your harshest critics concede 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. There is a verse from a rabbi that many in this audience will know. It goes like this. The day is short 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 desisted from the task, from columbia to the Central African republican every other conflict in between, especially the israelipalestinian conflict. For all of that, we care deeply 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. I am going to unveil a plaque we made for you for the occasion. Im the unveiling in chief here. Will the who paid for this, brookings or me . It looks really expensive, doesnt it . [laughter] there is not a more deserving person than this guy right here. [applause] you cannot read it. To the honorable john kerry, 58 secretary of state for his noble and unflagging pursuit 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 talk about, before i raise some of the easy questions, i wanted to ask you about some of the events of the previous few days. President elect trump has made diplomatic innovations on the pakistan front, the taiwan front, the philippine front. I wanted to ask you [laughter] i am simply stating truth, i wanted to ask you if you are at all worried that the Trump Transition Team will instigate an International Crisis while you are still in charge and if you are still in contact with them at all about managing the transition process. [laughter] sec. Kerry 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 able to brief whoever the final nominee will be and i do not want to come at it with any engagement on any of the choices they are making publicly. I think it is better for me to stay out of the politics that i have stayed out of for four years. I did not go to the race and i did not go to the convention and im prohibited by law. Ill will keep it that way until january 20. Mr. Goldberg fine. 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 said the two state solution had 1824 months. If you could not achieve it in 1820 months, it would be too late. We are 3. 5 years out from that date. Is it too late for the two state solution . Sec. Kerry that is a really good question and it is one that will big beg 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 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. I do not think it has to be as perplexing as everybody is making it, but those are choices of leadership. I want to weave into the answer to your question some thought. That question and the possibilities in the answers to it are still very much central to my thinking and what i want to share with you here today. Can i begin by saying you know, i do feel really passionate, genuinely passionate about israel. The land of milk and honey. It was about 120 years ago that the first Zionist Convention took place in basel. 100 years ago that the declaration was laid out. 70 years ago that i think we proceeded with resolution 181, which led to the formation of a jewish state 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 reread others who define zionism, and think about what was trying to be achieved in the establishment of this beautiful thing close to israel, a place where the george people that the jewish 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 defined by borders, a 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 3. 67 , we will know instantaneously if they have more mines because we are tracking the mining. After 25 years and then afterwards, a lifetime agreement, inspections, advanced protocol. I am confident. Our Defense Department is confident. We will know 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. Will those are only the republic 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. In a situation where i speak as an unapologetic friend of israel. I have watched while we, the Obama Administration, as put 23. 5 billion 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. We have just signed an agreement for 38 million over 10 years. 3. 8 billion per year, up point up from 3. 1. We have never ever shied away from vetoing a resolution or standing up against an unfair and biased resolution at the u. N. , at the human rights council, you name it. And many times, my friends, alone, the only nation in the world, we were there. I say all of this to you because i want you to understand that i want to be very clear about my passion for this dream, for the entity, for the democracy, for the example, for the beauty of what israel was designed to be 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 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 jumped of being 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 later, but let me point out a few things. The questions i raise about israel are not because we dont care about israel. It is because we do care. We want to be able to see this thing develop into the full blossomed begin beacon it has the potential of being. Israel has enormous agricultural skills, technology skills. Remarkable 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. But the issue 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 acknowledge it, and how many of you believe in a two state solution . You believe two states is critical . It is the vast majority. How many of you dont or are willing to say so. Just one hand up. Maybe a few of you dont want to say. [laughter] all right. So the question for all of us is not the road we have traveled for the last 100 years. The question is what will the next 100 years look like . Where are we going . Let me tell you, let me tell you a few things i have learned for sure in the last few years. There will be no separate peace between israel and the arab world. I want to make it clear to all of you. I have heard several prominent politicians in israel sometimes saying the arab 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. I can tell you that reaffirmed even in the last week as i have spoken with leaders of the arab community. There will be no advance and 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 incitement, 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. And that 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 was with the signing of oslo, there is area a, b, c. Area a is Palestinian Security and administrative control, area b is a split and area c is just israel, security, and administrative still. The deal in 1993 was, over the next year and a half, area c would be transferred to palestinian administrative control. It did not happen for a number of reasons. But back in 1993, there were 110,000 settlers in the west bank. Today, there 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. Outside of that line drawn by israel, there are now 90,000 israelis living in the patchworks of settlements. There are 129 settlements. There are about 100 outposts. Know,tposts, as you all are illegal. Tomorrow night, there will be a vote which will decide whether or not 54 of those illegal outposts will be legalized within months. That is in addition to some 31 who have already been in the legalization process or legalized. I believe 19 have been legalized, 12 are in the process. Looking atso you are 85 of the 100 are about to be legalized. These outposts begin as one building, two buildings, and they become a scattering of 10 or 15 and they become a settlement. 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. Now, since obama became president the population outside the barrier in the west bank has increased by 20,000 people. Leaders in 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. No they are not. But i cannot accept the notion 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 and 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. Belongsthey believe it blockm and they want to the iece. They want to block the peace. That is the history of the settler movement, my friends. All i can say to you is that out of the mouths and ministers have become disturbing statements. They said a few days ago, this represents the end of the era of the twostate 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. Andhis is the predicament 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 as 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 side you are advocating for, you describe the situation in 1993, thats one thing and in 2016 its a completely different thing. Sec. Kerry 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 belief, its a function of what are being put to the people. Mr. Goldberg you know how hard it is to move 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. And it is also a state. 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 . I mean, 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 israel . Of is it going to be a jewish state. 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. I dont think 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. In fact, 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, Security Experts from israel. By the way, i urge many of you to talk to security folks in israel. That would be a nice, long 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. If you dont do that, how do you 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 plus slops. Currentposition of the government. Even the american position, which every president has been opposed to settlements. We issue a warning today when we see a new settlement announced. Nothing happens. It is ignored. The new settlement goes up. New units. New sales. Mr. Goldberg why dont you have any leverage with the Israeli Government . You are describing the situation with zero leverage. Sec. Kerry i think we do have leverage. Mr. Goldberg but they never listen to you. Sec. Kerry they have not listened to us on settlements. That is true. Mr. Goldberg on the issue you consider to be key. Sec. Kerry it really is a question lets stay with the big picture here. You have to keep coming back to this ground zero question. How do you have peace . Can anybody here define for me how you would fact have peace if the world and the palestinians themselves in the arab world and the Arab Peace Initiative are saying we want a palestinian state based on 1967 lines and we have moved them . The mandate in 1948 was 49 . It is now lowered to 22 . That is what the palestinians have been prepared to fight for. I remember shimon perez, the wonderfully eloquent perez saying to me as recently as two months before he passed away, i thi