Kerry warns Israel of ‘third intifada’

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned the Israeli regime of ‘a third intifada’ if the US-backed Palestinian-Israeli talks end in failure.

“The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos,” Kerry said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 on Thursday. “I mean, does Israel want a third intifada?” he asked.

Palestinians twice rose up against the Israeli occupiers in their intifadas – December 1987 and September 2000. A total of 6,200 Palestinians were killed in the two uprisings.

The negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israelis broke down on November 6 amid a dispute over the Tel Aviv regime’s decision to push ahead with the construction of over 3,700 new illegal settler units in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Kerry also stated, “The Palestinians knew that Israel would make some announcements. They knew it, but they don’t agree with it, and they don’t support it.”

The US official also met with acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on November 6, where he described Israel’s illegal settlement expansion as “illegitimate.”

“I want to make it extremely clear that at no time did the Palestinians in any way agree, as a matter of going back to the talks, that they could somehow condone or accept the settlements,” Kerry told Abbas.

The previous round of Palestinian-Israeli talks broke down in September 2010, after the Tel Aviv regime refused to freeze its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.