Incoming Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Secretary of State John Kerry inflamed tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians with his Wednesday speech.

Kerry fiercely criticized the Israeli government for its settlement policy regarding disputed territories occupied by Israel.

“While Secretary Kerry mentioned Gaza in his speech, he seems to have forgotten the history of the settlements in Gaza, where the Israeli government forced settlers to withdraw from all settlements and the Palestinians responded by sending rockets into Israel,” Schumer said in a statement Wednesday. “This is something that people of all political stripes in Israel vividly remember.”

{mosads}”While he may not have intended it, I fear Secretary Kerry, in his speech and action at the [United Nations], has emboldened extremists on both sides.”

Kerry earlier Wednesday vigorously defended America’s abstention from a U.N. Security Council vote last week on a resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policy.

“Friends need to tell each other the hard truths, and friendships require mutual respect,” he said at the State Department. “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.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by calling Kerry’s remarks “a great disappointment” that undermined the Jewish state.

“Israelis do not need to be lectured about the importance of peace by foreign leaders,” he said in Jerusalem.

The U.N. Security Council passed a Dec. 23 resolution 14-0 demanding an end to Israeli settlement building in occupied territories.

The U.S. could have vetoed the measure but abstained instead, ending a longstanding American policy of shielding Israel from U.N. reproaches.

President-elect Donald Trump joined with Netanyahu in unsuccessfully pressuring the Obama administration to block the resolution beforehand.

President Obama has repeatedly clashed with Netanyahu during his eight years in office, most notably over last year’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran.

Trump, meanwhile, has pledged his incoming administration will strengthen ties with Israel and defend it on the world stage.