{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://price.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=25&itemid=1876", "PRICE STATEMENT ON SECRETARY KERRY ISRAEL REMARKS", "2016-12-29", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "NC", "David Price", "P000523", "price.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington -- Congressman David E. Price (NC-04) released the following statement responding to Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\r\n\r\n\t\"Secretary of State John Kerry\u2019s address both reaffirmed our nation\u2019s historical commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reflected just how endangered this possibility has become.\r\n\r\n\t\"The vision of two states for the Israeli and Palestinian people, living side-by-side in peace and security, has been the foundation of a bipartisan consensus that has guided U.S. policy toward the Middle East for generations.\u00a0 The tenets of this consensus, upheld by broad majorities of Congress and by presidents of both parties, have included support for Israel\u2019s qualitative military advantage, advocacy on Israel\u2019s behalf against biased attacks in international organizations, and support for moderate and effective Palestinian institutions.\u00a0 They have also included the condemnation of actions by either side that diminish the prospects for peace\u2014especially the incitement of violence by Palestinians and illegal settlement activity by Israelis.\r\n\r\n\t\"Yet today the vision of a two-state solution faces an existential threat.\u00a0 This is not an ideological statement but a factual one:\u00a0 with continued settlement construction on the West Bank, the day will soon come when it will be impossible to divide the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River into two viable states, and Israel will be forced to choose between its Jewish identity and its democratic character.\u00a0 Leaders of Israel\u2019s political right, joined by some in the United States who claim to be Israel\u2019s most ardent defenders, appear to have given up on the two-state solution already.\u00a0 But majorities of Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans have not, and nor should our nation\u2019s leaders.\r\n\r\n\t\"In this context, Secretary Kerry\u2019s speech offered a powerful defense of the bipartisan consensus that has guided U.S. policy for decades.\u00a0 Of course the final terms of a peace agreement must be negotiated directly by Israelis and Palestinians\u2014but that does not preclude the United States, as Israel\u2019s closest friend and ally, from articulating non-binding parameters for what such an agreement could look like.\u00a0 In doing so, the Obama Administration demonstrated the type of international leadership called for in the resolution I coauthored with Rep. John Yarmuth and 62 other colleagues (H. Res. 686), earlier this year.\r\n\r\n\t\"As Secretary Kerry emphasized, true friendships require mutual respect and, occasionally, hard truths.\u00a0 His remarks should be a call to action for all who support the vision laid out by Israel\u2019s founders of a democratic state in the homeland of the Jewish people.\"\r\n\r\n\t###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://price.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=25&itemid=1876"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.435777172446251, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}