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Israeli Minister: Netanyahu No Longer Backs Two-State Solution

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Army Radio that neither he nor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu see the two-state solution as viable.

Hanegbi told Army Radio Monday morning he himself had never backed the two-state solution and Netanyahu no longer has the same vision he outlined at Bar Ilan University in 2009.

According to Hanegbi, Netanyahu said "the Palestinians have emptied it [the two-state solution] of its content.

"Under the conditions they want at present, it is simply not something we can consider," Netanyahu reportedly said. "There is no partner for an agreement."

Netanyahu and Hanegbi are not the only Israelis who have given up on the two-state solution.

An op-ed by Dr. Max Singer, posted by the Begin-Sadat Center (BESA) over the weekend, suggested most Palestinians believe reaching a peace agreement with Israel is tantamount to admitting "defeat in their 100-year struggle."

"Continued Israeli occupation [sic] is one of the Palestinians' best weapons against Israel," he wrote, "and they will not give it up while their war to eliminate Israel continues."

Israel is not facing a dilemma about relinquishing sovereignty over disputed areas, Singer said.

"There is zero chance that there could be a real peace agreement now regardless of how much land Israel would be willing to give up," he explained.

"A true two-state solution would finally defeat Palestinian and Arab efforts of a century, and they are not yet ready to accept defeat. Whatever disagreement there is among Israelis about how much land, if any, Israel should give up to get peace, that disagreement is not what is standing in the way of peace," he said.

In her book, "The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East," author and speaker Caroline Glick explains why the two-state plan is neither practical nor doable.

"Between 1970 and 2013, the United States presented nine different peace plans for Israel and the Palestinians, and for the past twenty years, the two-state solution has been the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy," Glick wrote. "But despite this laser focus, American efforts to implement a two-state peace deal have failed – and with each new attempt, the Middle East has become less stable, more violent, more radicalized, and more inimical to democratic values and interests."

In this week's column for the Jerusalem Post, Glick said President Trump is carrying on Obama's polices when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians, policies that are "…substantively all but indistinguishable from those of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush before him."

"The two-state model is a utopian fantasy," she wrote, but it's not too late for Netanyahu to "offer an alternative to the failed two-state fantasy."

"He can release himself, his country and Trump from the two-state/one-state cognitive straightjacket," Glick continued. Trump has said he doesn't want to repeat the same mistakes as those who went before him, but "absent a clear strategic plan of action from Netanyahu," he [Trump] will have no choice to do so."

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About The Author

Tzippe
Barrow

From her perch high atop the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, Tzippe Barrow tries to provide a bird’s eye view of events unfolding in her country. Tzippe’s parents were born to Russian Jewish immigrants, who fled the czar’s pogroms to make a new life in America. As a teenager, Tzippe wanted to spend a summer in Israel, but her parents, sensing the very real possibility that she might want to live there, sent her and her sister to Switzerland instead. Twenty years later, the Lord opened the door to visit the ancient homeland of her people.