RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Secretary of State John Kerry has drawn fans and fury for a speech he gave yesterday on the Middle East. In it, he strongly condemned Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His address followed the U.S. decision not to shield Israel from a United Nations resolution condemning those settlements. Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab is among those who believe the speech was long overdue. We reached him in Amman, Jordan via Skype. Mr. Kuttab, how did Arab-Israelis and Palestinians react to Secretary Kerry's speech yesterday?
DAOUD KUTTAB: Well, by and large Palestinians I think of all walks of life and Arabs and I would say the international community welcomed the long overdue speech because it represents what the world knows and what many Israelis know, that settlements and peace just do not work together. If you want to support and if you agree to the two-state solution, you cannot at the same time talk about peace and continue to building settlements exclusively for Jews in the areas that are supposed to be part of the Palestinian state. It's so logical. It's so simple.
MARTIN: This does come toward the very end of the Obama presidency. So what possibly can come from this address?
KUTTAB: Well, this is the problem we've seen over and over and over. Presidents in the last days of their second term all of a sudden kind of wake up and tell the truths that they have been unable to or allowed to do because of the political pressures, domestic pressures, lobbying pressures, whatever. And we are seeing the truth coming out, as you said, maybe a little bit too late. The kind of the good part is that once there is Security Council resolution which condemns settlements as illegal and must be stopped, that is hard to reverse.
MARTIN: Secretary Kerry in his address was also critical of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for refusing to engage with Israel in the peace process. There is a vigorous debate in Israel over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies. What is happening among Palestinians in that respect with regard to Abbas? Is he getting public pressure to engage more?
KUTTAB: No. I think Mr. Kerry tried to appear to be balanced, tried to kind of reflect some of the items that the Israelis continuously say about incitement, about things like that. But everybody knows that the reality is Israeli soldiers occupy Palestinian lands. And if there are Palestinians who are resisting and if the PLO and the Palestinian Authority praises some people who are resisting, that's certainly not equal to those who are occupying over 50 years Palestinian land and building Jewish settlements against international law. What the Palestinians need to do obviously are I think they need to unite. They need to resolve their record, the problems with Hamas. They need to bring about much better unity with the Arab world.
MARTIN: We are just a few weeks away from the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. What are your expectations from the new administration?
KUTTAB: Well, you know, blessed are those with low expectations for they should not be disappointed. I don't think that President-elect Trump is going to be any different than previous governments.
MARTIN: Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab, thank you so much for talking with us.
KUTTAB: Thank you, Rachel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.