Bibi comes out swinging for two-state solution

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has altered his message on the two-state solution in recent days, expressing more enthusiasm than at any other point in his political career.

Though Netanyahu formally endorsed a two-state vision in 2009, he didn’t underscore his commitment by discussing its urgency. Netanyahu avoided discussing the danger of a bi-national state that could lurk if a Palestinian state isn’t created.

However, he has now adopted precisely that line of argument, saying of the conflict with the Palestinians: “The reason we have to resolve it is that we don’t want a bi-national state,” he said. “I don’t want a bi-national state. I want a state for the Jewish people alongside a state for the Palestinian people.”

He made these comments to The Washington Post.

He also enthused about the idea of negotiations at the Israeli Presidential Conference, declaring: “The only way to achieve peace, the only way to negotiate a peace and to end the negotiations for peace is to begin the negotiations for peace. We’re ready to begin negotiations now, without preconditions. And I hope that the Palestinian leadership is equally ready.”

Netanyahu went on to say: “We’re only 15 minutes apart. Well, with a police escort you could do it faster, but that’s the distance from Ramallah to Jerusalem. There’s no reason on earth we shouldn’t negotiate. And we give Secretary [John] Kerry all the support for his important effort, and I hope he succeeds, because we want to succeed.”

In his Washington Post interview, Netanyahu went so far as to say that if Kerry, US Secretary of State, pitched a tent between Jerusalem and Ramallah, he is “committed to stay in the tent and negotiate for as long as it takes to work out a solution of peace and security between us and the Palestinians”.

Netanyahu’s positive stance on the two-state solution comes as his coalition colleague Naftali Bennett, Economy Minister and leader of the Jewish Home party, is upping his ante against the two-state solution. Last week, Bennett declared that the two-state vision has reached a “dead end”, and this week he said that while he won’t veto negotiations, he wouldn’t approve concessions to the Palestinian Authority in order to begin negotiations.

The return of the two-state solution to the top of the political agenda has driven a wedge between Bennett and Yair Lapid, who has been Bennett’s political ally since the January election. Lapid, Finance Minister and leader of Yesh Atid, has criticised Bennett’s view on the two-state solution, saying: “Not having two states means that Israel would be a bi-national state, which would be the end of Zionism.”

NATHAN JEFFAY