Obama to Israel: Pursue a Two-State Solution

JERUSALEM, Israel -- U.S. President Barack Obama ended his congratulatory statement to Israel on its new government with “the importance of pursuing a two-state solution.”

“We also look forward to continuing consultations on a range of regional issues, including international negotiations to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and the importance of pursuing a two-state solution,” the statement concluded.

Political analyst Aaron Lerner, co-founder and director of the Independent Media Review Analysis, told CBN News he envisioned Obama “in some kind of priestly attire with a hood calling on Israel to bow down and kiss the holy ring of the two-state solution.”

“Peace talks are currently in an ‘if pigs could fly' status because a series of conditions need to be addressed first,” he said.

Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel experienced two intifadas (armed Palestinian uprisings) that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and injured and maimed thousands more. In between, talks started and stopped numerous times.

Despite a series of goodwill gestures by successive Israeli administrations, P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas, in the tenth year of a four-year term, ultimately decided to pursue international backing for statehood.

In 2014, the U.S. vetoed a P.A. petition to the U.N. Security Council requiring an Israeli withdrawal from all territory outside the pre-1967 armistice lines to create a Palestinian state within those borders with Jerusalem as its capital. The White House recently hinted they may not back Israel the next time around.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s statement that a two-state solution is unlikely at this time doesn’t mean he’s opposed to a Palestinian state. He made that clear in his 2009 Bar-Ilan speech. In fact he’s in favor of the Palestinian people running their own affairs and over the years has offered Israel’s help in a variety of ways to keep the whole process moving forward.

It all seemed to fall on deaf ears. Instead the Palestinian Authority sought international backing for unilateral statehood, while incitement continues unabated.

Palestinian children are taught that Haifa and Tel Aviv will be “returned” to them one day. That does not jibe with two states living in peaceful coexistence. The fact is the P.A. envisions its state in place of Israel, not beside it, as seen in its official logo.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon often points out there can be no viable progress toward an independent Palestinian state until the P.A. stops inciting hatred among its people.

The Palestinian leadership has shown itself unwilling to resolve the issues that would make an independent state possible. Israel has to deal with the situation as it exists both practically and diplomatically.

President Obama’s insistence on pursuing the two-state solution is not only unrealistic at this time, it degrades Israeli efforts to carve out viable ways forward.