Kerry on Middle East Peace: We Cannot Stand by and Do Nothing; Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu Reacts to John Kerry Speech.
TAPPER: Back now to our discussion on the comments on Middle East peace from Secretary of State John Kerry. Later this hour, we expect to hear live from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will react to comments such as this one from Secretary Kerry. Take a listen.</s>JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: President Obama and I know that the incoming administration has signaled that they may take a different path, and even suggested breaking from the long-standing U.S. policies on settlements, Jerusalem, and the possibility of a two- state solution. That is for them to decide. That's how we work. But we cannot, in good conscience, do nothing and say nothing when we see the hope of peace slipping away.</s>JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR & SENIOR ADVISOR, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: I think the main point is that there's an elephant in the living room that, particularly, I think the Palestinians and those who support their position won't notice, refuse to notice, which is that they have to stop killing Israelis and Jews, or there's not going to be a one-state or two-state solution or anything. You can't do a deal as long as the Israelis, who want to live on the West Bank, have to build shelters around themselves in order to exist. With the Palestinian Arabs, the Israeli Arabs, who are citizens of Israel -- about one-sixth of Israel is Palestinian -- if -- when they are in a -- running a country, or partially running a country, they get representatives in the Knesset, they have a Supreme Court justice, cabinet members, they have publications, and they are not afraid somebody's going to come kill them in the middle of the night. But Jews trying to live peacefully somewhere in the West Bank do have to be afraid. They've got have is a settlement. We just had 92 young Russians killed in the Black Sea air -- a terrible tragedy. But nobody came along and said, you know, every few months, we're going to kill 92 people, or just kind of don't bother us, because it would offend us if you bothered us. You know, they have to begin the process of working together with the Israelis. And I think the Israelis would do a two-state deal if it were run by somebody other than the way things have worked out. If look at the Clinton parameters at the end of the Clinton administration --</s>TAPPER: Uh-huh.</s>WOOLSEY: -- it was tough on Israel, but one that -- a deal that could have been accepted, and Barak got it accepted by the Knesset.</s>TAPPER: Ehud Barak, yes.</s>WOOLSEY: And that was fine, and the Palestinians gave it the back of their hand.</s>TAPPER: Let me ask you a question. John Kerry said something that I have been hearing a long, long time, which is it's in Israel's future unless there's a two-state solution that Israel will have to choose between a Jewish state, in which case, it does not let Palestinians have voting rights, et cetera, those under current occupation, or Naftali Bennett put it, in the autonomous regions, a Jewish state or democracy, but it will have to choose, unless there is a two-state solution. And you from Naftali Bennett, the education minister, somebody who is a rising star on the right in Israel, you know, that Benjamin Netanyahu is always looking over his shoulder to see where Bennett is, and he --there's no two-state solution coming from that guy?</s>WOOLSEY: Well, there's -- that's the conventional wisdom, I understand that. But I think that it matters a huge amount whether or not the parties are living for a while at peace the way the Israelis and the Israeli Arabs do, or whether they're living only with guns lowered and in shelter, the way one has to on the West Bank if one wants to live on the West Bank. And I think that there are a lot of people in Israel who would go along with something, if the Palestinians stopped killing them. But you look at what's happened now out of Gaza. You look at what's happened with the attack with knives. It just goes on and on and on. And I must say, I don't think Israel is the provocateur in this. The only way that they're the provocateur is that they exist, and Palestinians don't want a Jewish state or partially a Jewish state or any Jews at all in that part of the world, and that's the problem.</s>TAPPER: What seemed to prompt Secretary Kerry's speech today are two things. One, the U.N. resolution and the Israelis pushing back really strongly against the Obama administration for not vetoing it, and, two, the notion that, in the view of Secretary Kerry and the Obama administration, the Netanyahu government says publicly that they want a two-state solution, but when you look at their policies, and the settlements that have grown in the West Bank, including outside areas that would be possibly part of Israel in a land swap in any sort of peace process, they are undermining any ability to create a two- state solution by just demolishing the idea of any contiguous state there. Is that not -- is that not legitimate?</s>WOOLSEY: Well, the Israelis have, like I say, about five-sixth citizens of Israel. The other one-sixth are Arabs. Nobody worries about continuity and continuous state. They live in all sorts of different places. And it's -- it's two people that, at least in Middle East terms, are getting along reasonably well with one another, and would it be that different if it was one-third Palestinian and two-thirds Israeli? Which might be a single state? I don't know. I don't know that it would be all that different if people just stopped murdering their opponents. That's -- that has to happen, or nothing works.</s>TAPPER: You heard Bennett, who said they wouldn't be giving them voting rights. They would let them live in autonomous regions?</s>WOOLSEY: I would like somebody to look into a one-state solution with full rights and see how it would work. I don't know. It might be hard, but I don't think it's as impossible as trying to make something work while the Palestinians keep killing Jews.</s>TAPPER: All right. I don't think we'll solve this problem right now. Former CIA Director James Woolsey, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Merry Christmas and happy New Year. Donald Trump taking a swipe at President Obama. Responding, really. We'll take a look at what he's saying about the transition and the cooperation, and what his team is now saying to clarify the tweets. That's next. And you're looking at live pictures from Jerusalem. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to respond to Secretary of State Kerry's speech and moment. We'll bring that live to you.