Fake ‘two-state solution’ recipe for new disasters

The conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden by telephone on Friday, clearly indicates that neither is ready to seek a cease-fire in Gaza.

Although they showed a shared willingness to confer on the postwar order in Gaza, they stopped short of discussing how to end the war first.

Due to the strong pressure from the international community over Israel’s lasting offensive aimed at forcing Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, as well as the rising discontent at home with his coalition government’s inability to secure the release of remaining more than 100 hostages held by Hamas, Netanyahu dropped the hints in his dialogue with Biden that he was not foreclosing on the possibility of a Palestinian state.

Although that appears to contradict with his long-term stance of rejecting the two-state solution and the Israeli leader insists his position regarding the Palestinian issue remains unchanged, the idea, according to various sources familiar with the conversation, is to demilitarize the future Palestinian state, in which Israel intends for Palestinians to govern themselves but without the capability to threaten Israel. To that end, Israel needs to have full security control of all territory west of the Jordan River.

That entails the eradication of Hamas not only from Gaza but also rest of the West Bank which means the conflict will be further expanded if Hamas refuses to surrender. That might go well beyond the United States’ capacity to provide assistance to Israel given the current already serious spillover effect of the Gaza conflict in the Middle East.

The so-called postwar order the US and Israeli leaders envision for Gaza and the West Bank fundamentally contradicts with the sovereignty of a Palestinian state. The two-state solution proposed by the United Nations by no means empowers Israel to exercise de facto control over a Palestinian state.

Both Washington and Tel Aviv should be reminded that the two-state solution, as stipulated by relevant UN resolutions, refers to the restoration of the legitimate national rights of Palestine, and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 border and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Any arrangement on the future of Gaza and the West Bank as a whole must respect the will and independent choice of the Palestinian people, and must not be imposed upon them.

If not, the “two-state solution” the two allies are talking about will only be a recipe for further disasters.