Theresa May Scolds Kerry for Focus on Israel Settlements

Even the so-called special relationship is subject to limits, it seems.

Looking ahead to the advent of a Republican administration under Donald J. Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain scolded Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday night for his speech criticizing Israel, a public jab that would have been highly unlikely at any other time during the Obama administration.

Mrs. May chided Mr. Kerry for describing the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the “most right-wing in Israel’s history, with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements,” and she suggested that Mr. Kerry’s intense focus on Israeli settlement expansion was too narrow for a complicated conflict.

Mrs. May does “not believe that it is appropriate to attack the composition of the democratically elected government of an ally,” a spokesman for the prime minister said, using the department’s customary anonymity. “The government believes that negotiations will only succeed when they are conducted between the two parties, supported by the international community.”

Relations with the Obama administration have not always been smooth, with major disagreements over Syria policy and military spending, but the two countries are close, especially when it comes to intelligence sharing and NATO.

Still, the comments on Thursday night represented an extraordinary public rebuke to such a close ally, even if Mr. Obama is about to exit the scene, and Britain clearly wants to maintain ties to Israel and its elected government.

The issue was not about the legality of the settlements. The British government voted in favor of the Security Council resolution because Britain, like other European members of the Council, has long considered the settlements beyond 1967 lines to be illegal.

In fact, the British government worked with other countries and the Palestinians on the wording of the resolution, to ensure that London could support it and that Washington would not veto it.

“But we are also clear that the settlements are far from the only problem in this conflict,” Mrs. May’s spokesman said. “In particular, the people of Israel deserve to live free from the threat of terrorism, with which they have had to cope for too long.”

In fact, while Mr. Kerry concentrated on the settlement issue, he also spoke of the need for Israelis to live with security, and he criticized Palestinians as not doing enough to combat terrorism.

Mr. Kerry’s speech, and the American abstention, were praised by other European nations, including France and Germany. So the British slap was something of a shock to Washington.

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