Kerry accuses Netanyahu for dragging Jerusalem away from democracy<br/><br/>US Secretary of State John Kerry has criticised Israel for settlement-building, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging Jerusalem away from democracy. <br/><br/>In a farewell speech at Washington, Mr Kerry said, he has laid out a vision for peace that he won't be in office to implement, but that the US hoped might be heeded even after President Barack Obama leaves office.<br/><br/> Mr Kerry unveiled a six-part outline of a possible future peace deal. He defended the Obama administration's decision to allow the United Nations Security Council to declare Israeli settlements illegal. <br/><br/>Mr Kerry said, if the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic, it cannot be both, and it won't ever really be at peace.<br/><br/>The Israeli Prime Minister's office issued a statement denouncing the speech. It said, like the Security Council resolution that Secretary Kerry advanced in the UN, his speech was skewed against Israel.<br/><br/> The statement said, Mr Kerry obsessively dealt with settlements and barely touched upon the root of the conflict that is Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state in any boundaries.<br/><br/>Reacting to Mr Kerry's address, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said he was ready to resume peace efforts with Israel if it stopped settlement building.<br/><br/>The international community overwhelmingly opposes Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians for an independent state.<br/><br/>