With less than a month left in office, Secretary of State John Kerry laid out the Obama administration’s vision for Middle East peace Wednesday, offering a framework for a deal between Israelis and Palestinians. Kerry defended the United States’ decision to abstain from a vote on – and not veto – a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as one aimed at “preserving the two-state solution” and offered a stinging rebuke of Israeli settlement policy as he promoted a two-state solution to the conflict, which he called “the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”