US pulls back from linking settlements to violence – State Department says Kerry comments seeming to suggest connection between West Bank construction and stabbing spree misinterpreted | The Times of Israel

US pulls back from linking settlements to violence – State Department says Kerry comments seeming to suggest connection between West Bank construction and stabbing spree misinterpreted | The Times of Israel

WASHINGTON — The US State Department distanced itself on Wednesday from claims that Secretary of State John Kerry had linked what he described as a “massive increase in settlements” to the current outbreak of violence plaguing Israel. But it reiterated Kerry’s message delivered a day earlier that Israel’s settlement policy was distancing the possibility of achieving a two-state solution….