In the waning days of the Obama administration, Secretary of State John Kerry has delivered a valedictory speech on the Middle East peace process. His December 29 address — which sternly critiqued Israel, urging it to end the slide toward a one-state solution — included six principles to guide Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and ultimately reach a two-state solution. Kerry defended his speech as a need to tell tough truths about what Israel must do to retain its Jewish and democratic character. Yet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attacked it as “unbalanced,” saying Israel does not need to be “lectured to” by foreign leaders. Given the anger Israelis have expressed over the U.S. abstention on UN Security Council Resolution 2334 and their expectations about the incoming Trump presidency, Netanyahu seems bent on lashing out at the Obama administration with greater intensity than ever.

The speech’s timing, ambitious tone, and controversial nature could have manifold implications for U.S. policy and Washington’s relations with Israel. At this point, however, it seems most useful to focus on the core negotiating principles that Kerry laid out, comparing them with the parameters laid out by past administrations.

WHAT IS NEW IN THE SPEECH?

Kerry’s speech was the coda to the third major U.S. effort this century to jumpstart a negotiating drive and end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In July 2000, President Bill Clinton held a Camp David summit with both parties, culminating in the Clinton Parameters that December. Similar efforts were launched by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2007-2008 and by Kerry himself in 2013-2014.

Some will argue that the latest speech has little relevance because President-elect Donald Trump has made clear that his views on the matter differ sharply from Obama’s. Yet the Clinton Parameters have remained the baseline for negotiators since 2000, through very different administrations...