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Can a two-state solution survive Olmert's resignation?
02/10/2008 By Henry Siegman
G. Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images
The Olmert’s plan is silent on whether Israel will allow Palestinians to locate the capital of their state in East Jerusalem. It demands that Palestinians relinquish the right of their refugees to return to their homes in Israel, and that the accord be a “shelf-agreement,” to be implemented at a time to be determined by Israel – but in any event not before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will have expelled Hamas from Gaza.
A two-state solution can be rescued only if the next U.S. president will understand it is not an act of friendship to the Jewish state or the Jewish people to support policies of an Israeli government that spell Israel’s end as a democratic or Jewish state. Nothing in the pre-election pronouncements of John McCain or Barak Obama indicates either one is likely to act on that understanding.
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Keywords
Conflict Gaza Strip and West Bank Israel Middle EastRelated publications
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Bio author: Henry Siegman
Henry Siegman is president of the U.S./Middle East Project, a program of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) for the past 14 years and, as of September 2006, an independent policy institute. He is also a research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Mr. Siegman's areas of specialization include Arab-Israel relations, the Middle East peace process, U.S. Middle East policy, and interreligious relations.
