A US step to save the two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians

The two-state solution has always been the Zionist solution for Israel to maintain itself as the Jewish nation-state. If there is no two-state solution, then there is no Zionist solution that is acceptable and enables Israel to continue to rule over millions of Palestinians devoid of full political rights as well as not recognizing Israel’s Palestinian citizens as full and equal citizens.

That reality, which we have been living for decades, is clearly a new form of apartheid and should not be acceptable to anyone in the world or to anyone in Israel. A one-state solution, be it a federal state or a confederate state requires Israel to de-Zionize itself to become the state of all of its citizens.

That is what is likely to happen if we continue to follow the line and program of the new Israeli government, which is more positive in the short-term towards the Palestinians than the previous Netanyahu governments, but not much different when it comes to finding longer term solutions.

Prime Minister Bennett has made it quite clear that the Israeli government will not annex the West Bank or parts of the West Bank but will also not allow for the creation of a Palestinian State. This government is continuing to fund settlement expansion. Israeli infrastructure continues to expand in the West Bank at an unprecedented pace.

The new Israeli government has done nothing to rein in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians. Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli soldiers almost every week with virtually no notice of such by the Israeli political center or the Israeli public.

Bennett continues to issue threats to the Hamas leadership and to the people in Gaza regarding any form of protest that they engage in against Israel – whether demonstrations at the border or the use of arms against soldiers or civilians. Bennett has never outlined any coherent Israeli strategy regarding the long-term relations between Israel and the more than 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank. 

DEFENSE MINISTER Benny Gantz’s recent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas promised new Israeli policies aimed at improving the economic conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and strengthening the Palestinian Authority. Gantz also declared that there is not a long-term Israeli strategy on the issue of Palestinian statehood.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid who is supposed to replace Bennett as Prime Minister in less than two years, outlined on Sunday a “new vision” for Israel’s relations with Gaza, saying that Israel “must move toward a multi-year process in Gaza of economy in return for security” and further said that the aim of such a move is “to create stability on both sides of the border.” Lapid confirmed the position of the government that “the solution presented here doesn’t address the two-state solution, but my opinion on the matter is well known: Israel needs to act to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and to negotiate with it with an aim of achieving a two-state solution.”

Lapid is not alone in the government, there is also Meretz and the Labor Party that support a two-state solution while Tikva Hadasha (New Hope) of Gideon Sa’ar fully rejects the creation of a Palestinian state and Minister of Finance Avigdor Liberman has voiced different opinions on the issue at different times. I don’t think we know for sure what the position of Mansour Abbas and the [United Arab List] Ra’am Party is on the creation of a Palestinian state, or more, what their position is on Israel being the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people since they don’t really deal with the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The position of the vast majority of the international community, including all of Israel’s direct neighbors who have made peace with Israel – Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – is in support of the two states solution. All of Europe supports the two-state solution, so does most of North and South America, along with Russia and China and most of Asia as well. All of those countries have not yet come to terms with the fading viability of that solution.

In private, some of the European countries have begun discussing alternatives to the two-state solution. Most the young generation of Palestinians and almost every Palestinian think-tank in Palestine and around the world are discussing alternatives to the two-state solution. A few serious think-tanks in Israel are beginning to do that, and a growing number of civil society organizations in Israel are beginning to look at alternatives to the two-state solution.

IT IS clear that the Biden administration has placed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict very low on their agenda. After the US withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Biden Administration’s focus on dealing with the economy and the pandemic, it is almost impossible to imagine a new US Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative. Even I would advise them not to launch a new American peace initiative.

So, if the international community, the US and Israeli Zionists on the left are truly interested in saving the two-state solution before it is too late (and it may already be too late), the question is what can be done that has the power to shock the political systems here in Israel and Palestine into action to save it? My answer is American recognition of the State of Palestine.

The US and the world recognize Israel and recognize the two-state solution as the best solution to the conflict – so why not take the next step? Recognizing the State of Palestine could include the opening of an American Embassy to Palestine in East Jerusalem – in the building that used to hold the US Consulate in East Jerusalem. The US could also announce that the Palestinian office in Washington should be recognized as the Embassy of the State of Palestine to the United States.

This US step could lead to other countries, such as Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and other countries not in the region to declare that they too are willing to open an Embassy to the State of Israel in West Jerusalem and an Embassy to Palestine in East Jerusalem. All of this can be done without the US leading a new peace initiative or relaunching negotiations. Negotiations between the two states on borders, security, the future of Jerusalem and other issues can be conducted at a later time. US recognition of Palestine is a step that could shape the future and possibly breathe much needed life in to the dormant two-state solution.