ISRAEL DERIDES SUMMIT CALL

TWO-STATE SOLUTION

JERUSALEM • In a strong message to Israel and the incoming Trump administration, dozens of countries are expected this weekend to reiterate their opposition to Israeli settlements and call for the establishment of a Palestinian state as “the only way” to ensure peace in the region.

France is hosting more than 70 countries on Sunday at a Mideast peace summit, in what will be a final chance for the Obama administration to lay out its positions for the region.

According to a draft statement obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, the conference will urge Israel and the Palestinians “to officially restate their commitment to the two-state solution.”

The draft says that participants will affirm “that a negotiated solution with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, is the only way to achieve enduring peace.”

The Israeli government will boycott the conference, and its leaders have expressed disdain for the effort.

“It’s a rigged conference, rigged by the Palestinians, under French auspices, to adopt additional anti-Israel stances,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

Signalling his exasperation with the Obama administration, the prime minister called the French initiative “a relic of the past. It’s a last gasp of the past before the future sets in.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said the Paris conference “is like a wedding with neither bride nor groom.” Hotovely stressed that “the conference won’t bring peace. On the contrary, it will distance peace. Israel achieved peace with Egypt and Jordan through direct talks.”

The summit comes on the heels of a UN Security Council resolution last month that condemned the settlements as illegal. The resolution passed 14-0 after the U.S. declined to use its veto and instead abstained.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is attending Sunday’s summit as one of his last international appearances in an official capacity, said in a speech last month that Israel’s continued settlement growth threatens the possibility of a two-state solution. He also criticized Palestinian attacks on civilians and incitement to violence.

The Palestinians have welcomed the French initiative. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will go to Paris on Monday.