US SECRETARY of State John Kerry issued a series of platitudes yesterday in what was meant to be a landmark speech on securing peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Following a United Nations resolution that condemned Israel for breaking international law by building settlements in the occupied West Bank, Mr Kerry’s speech was hyped as a bid to get the so-called peace process back on track.

However, he largely limited himself to repeating tepid US criticisms of Israel focused on its West Bank settlements, illegal under the Geneva conventions, and repeatedly condemned over decades by the vast majority of countries at the UN, although not the US.

It appeared to have at least some effect, as the Israeli city council in Jerusalem put off a vote on approving 492 new settlement homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

Mr Kerry’s speech took on added importance because of the barrage of criticism fired at Washington by Israel after the US abstained in the vote on the security council resolution.

Usually, the US vetoes such resolutions. Its decision to abstain has prompted the Israeli government to claim, without any evidence, that the US organised the resolution.

Israel’s reaction to the vote has been to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against itself and threaten to cut off ties with the 14 states that backed the resolution.

Mr Kerry said the US not voting on the resolution “was about preserving the two-state solution,” although he did not specify how — the resolution includes no sanctions — or say whether huge US military support to Israel might be a factor.

He also did not address whether President Barack Obama’s consistent support for Israel during its massacres of Palestinian civilians might have undermined the hopes for a two-state solution.

Mr Kerry further said that Israel’s democratic credentials were at risk. “If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic. It cannot be both and it won’t ever really be at peace,” he said.

Israel discriminates against non-Jewish citizens in law and there is a feverish anti-Palestinian racism that has included physical attacks by Jewish Israeli MPs on Arab Israeli MPs in the country’s parliament.

However, Mr Kerry emphasised that “no American administration has done more for Israel’s security than Barack Obama’s.”

Mr Kerry and Mr Obama approved a 10-year $38 billion military aid programme for Israel in September.