US secretary of state outlines vision for peace between Israel and Palestine weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

For the moment, at least, according to senior Obama administration officials who discussed the road to the president’s decision on the condition of anonymity, the administration takes some satisfaction in that the issue of settlements and the perceived risk they pose to an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is back on the international agenda.

“Resolution 2334 should be seen as a belated step towards mobilizing the international consensus. But to give it any real effect, states will need to build on the resolution with a view to making it operational. The EU is best positioned to do so,” writes Hugh Lovatt.

While Netanyahu points finger at Obama, London says move was part of new strategy by PM May.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Middle East speech in Washington on Wednesday by saying he was convinced peace with Israel was achievable, but continuing to demand that Israel halt settlement building before talks restarted.

“What made Kerry remember now, just three weeks before he leaves his post, to preach to the Israeli public on the danger of settlements? About how continued construction in the settlements is inconsistent with two-state solution?” asks Avi Issacharoff.

The Jerusalem municipality approved construction of a Jewish-owned building in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

“Israel is in an uproar over last week’s United Nations Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements, which the United States greenlighted by withholding its veto. But as Israeli politicians from the hard right to center-left condemn the resolution, some are finding a silver lining: scoring political points with the voting public,” writes Naomi Zeveloff.

Likud-proposed legislation comes after Israeli human rights group B’Tselem criticizes Israel’s settlement policy at UN.

Speaking in an interview with Ynet, the Bayit Yehudi leader said that with the inauguration of President-elect Trump next month, ‘Palestine will be taken off the agenda,’ Israeli law will be imposed over ‘Jewish areas in Judea and Samaria’; MK Oren: ‘Kerry still lives in the 90s.’