The Obama administration said it would look to the new Israeli government to recommit itself to the two-state solution.
“We will look to the next Israeli government to match words with actions and policies that demonstrate a genuine commitment to a two-state solution,” Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said March 23 at the annual conference of J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group.
McDonough’s comment was the first sign that the White House seemed ready to put behind it Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pre-election comments last week repudiating a two-state solution. But McDonough made clear that Netanyahu’s comments were still an irritant.
“Over the course of President Obama’s administration, most recently with the tireless efforts of Secretary [John] Kerry, the United States has expended tremendous energy in pursuit of this goal,” McDonough said. “That is why the prime minister’s comments on the eve of the election — in which he first intimated and then made very clear in response to a follow-up question that a Palestinian state will not be established while he is prime minister — were so troubling.”
McDonough added that a future peace deal would involve Israeli withdrawal from all the land it captured in the Six-Day War.
“The borders of Israel and an independent Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” he said. “An occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end, and the Palestinian people must have the right to live in and govern themselves in their own sovereign state.” — jta