Netanyahu lied about backing two-state solution, former US envoy says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “lied" to world leaders in the past when he spoke of supporting a two-state resolution to the Palestinian conflict, charged former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk.

“So all those promises to world leaders about his commitment to a two-state solution were a bunch of lies. And all those enablers who swore Bibi was serious about peace have some explaining to do,” Indyk wrote in a post on X on Sunday.

He spoke one day after Netanyahu boasted that he had thwarted the creation of a Palestinian state during his more than 16 years in office.

“I am proud that I prevented the creation of a Palestinian state because today everyone understands what this Palestinian state could have been now that we saw the small Palestinian state in Gaza,” Netanyahu said on Saturday night during a press conference.

He referenced the Hamas-run Gaza as an example of the type of a terror-run state that could have been created in the West Bank as well if a Palestinian state had been created there.

“We understand what would have been if we had caved to international pressure and allowed that kind of a state in Judea and Samaria,” he said.

In one of his most clear statements against a Palestinian state he has made, Netanyahu backed the vision of two states for two peoples in his historic Bar Ilan declaration. He has clarified that he meant a demilitarized state.

Netanyahu has been cautious about denouncing that Bar Ilan declaration. In the past, he threw his support behind former US president Donald Trump’s two-state vision.  

Since returning to office in December 2022, he has led a government that has denounced Palestinian statehood. The issue of Palestinian statehood, which until the Gaza war had been a dormant issue, has returned to the headlines as the Biden administration has spoken of placing Gaza under Palestinian Authority rule.

Netanyahu has been blunt about his opposition to that plan, explaining that the 1993 Oslo Accord, which created the PA, was a mistake. He has accused the PA of supporting terror given that it provides monthly stipends to terrorists and their families and in light of its failure to condemn Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

Indyk said that Netanyahu had “always intended to destroy Oslo and therefore the denigration and choking of the PA became an essential part of the effort even as the PA cooperated in maintaining Israeli security in the West Bank.

“But now Oslo and the PA are back, resurrected by the US, Israel’s only friend in this crisis, and the Sunni Arab leaders, who will not support any of Bibi’s delusional day-after schemes.

“If Bibi sticks to his guns, Israel will have to reoccupy Gaza, run it, and pay for it in the face of opposition from the US, and the Arab states. It's not sustainable,” Indyk said.

He predicted that if US Joe Biden “stands his ground, Netanyahu will cave.”

Two-state solution vital for peace with Saudi Arabia - Lindsay Graham

US Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said that Israeli support for a two-state resolution to the conflict was essential if they wanted to create additional normalized ties with regional Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia.

“I can tell you, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cannot normalize with Israel if they're seen – if they're having been seen as throwing the Palestinians under the bus,” Graham told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

“We have two choices: continue the death spiral, or use October 7 as a catalyst for change. I think the Arabs are going to demand some form of two-state solution to recognize Israel.

“I think Israel's going to demand security buffers differently than before, and they need to make those demands. I don't know how this ends, but I'll tell you this. If we don't get this right this time, we're talking about another generation of just tit-for-tat death,” Graham said.