(JNS.org) Top American Jewish leaders, in interviews published Sunday by The Algemeiner, blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for his comments last week on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kerry had said that failed Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations could lead to a third Palestinian intifada, and that the U.S. agrees with the Palestinian Authority’s position that Israeli construction beyond the 1967 lines is illegitimate and presents an obstacle to peace.

“[Palestinian leaders] disagreed with [Israeli construction beyond the 1967 lines]. In fact, they said, ‘We don’t agree. We do not think you should be doing settlements.’ We, the United States, say the same thing. We do not believe the settlements are legitimate. We think they’re illegitimate. And we believe that the entire peace process would in fact be easier if these settlements were not taking place,” Kerry said.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told The Algemeiner, “The danger [of Kerry’s comments] is that you legitimate an escalation by saying that ‘because there is no progress it can start an intifada.’ There are elements there that will use this to legitimize what [the Palestinians] are doing.”

Daniel Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International, said Kerry “introduced views that can only complicate the [negotiations] process.”

“Why would the Palestinians negotiate on anything when the secretary of state calls settlements ‘illegal,’ when he says Israeli troops have to leave West Bank, when he increases aid to the PA when their corruption infuriates the Palestinian street, and seems to make no demands for Palestinians to once and for all stop the attacks on their neighbor’s legitimacy?” said Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Daniel Pipes, president of Middle East Forum, said, “Even as he accepts Tehran’s fraudulent Iranian assurances concerning its nuclear buildup, Obama’s secretary of state now threatens Israel with Palestinian violence unless it bends to American demands,” Pipes told JNS.org. “The gloves are off: the American president’s – and more broadly the Democratic party’s – true attitudes toward the Jewish state are now on display. Those of us who worried about Israel policy in a second Obama term now have our fears confirmed.”