Speaking at the Saban Forum on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is likely to end up in a one-state solution, complete with the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and an Israeli obligation to retake the Arab portion of Judea and Samaria. Kerry assured his audience that the US is still committed to a two-state solution, but noted that while Prime Minister Netanyahu has been paying lip service to it, a number of Israeli cabinet ministers are on the record in opposition to Palestinian statehood, and so, if things remain the way they have been, the Palestinian Authority is not likely to survive.
“If there is a risk the Palestinian Authority might collapse and Israel wants it to survive, shouldn’t Israel do more to help sustain it?” Kerry asked, and warned that “without the Palestinian Authority, Israel will be responsible for civil administration of the West Bank,” which would cost billions. He added that “without the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, the IDF would be forced to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers to the West Bank indefinitely.”
Naturally, since the PA’s spotty cooperation on terrorist attacks has been balanced out by the same PA’s incitement to terrorism, which makes one wonder how much less maintaining law and order could have been without all that help. But Kerry preferred to view things in psychological terms: “President Abbas feels great despair – more than I have ever heard him,” he said, and criticized Israel for allowing settlement construction, which he said made him question Israel’s long term intentions. He also rebuked Israel for not issuing construction permits to Palestinians in the predominantly Jewish Area C in 2015.
Prime Minister Netanyahu responded on Sunday at his weekly cabinet meeting, saying that Israel will not become a binational state. However, according to the PM, in order to have peace, the other side must also decide that it wants peace. Netanyahu noted that unfortunately we don’t see such willingness on the part of the Palestinians. He stressed that the PA continues to incite its people to violence against Jews, noting that the PA official in charge of the peace negotiations, Saeb Erekat, went to give his condolences to the family of a terrorist who tried to murder Jews, thus giving his approval to terrorism.
On Friday, at the Saban Forum, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that he was against a one-state solution, because Israel is not interested in ruling over the Palestinians. “We are happy they already have their political independence,” he said, stressing that Israel wants to see the Palestinians become competent enough to govern themselves.
The Israeli right is not nearly as afraid of a solution that would omit a Palestinian State. The two most popular plans currently include Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett’s proposal to let the Arabs establish a demilitarized autonomy in areas A and B, with Israel imposing Israeli laws in area C; and former MK Moshe Feiglin’s three-tier plan which abolishes the Palestinian Authority and offers incentives to Arabs wishing to immigrate to other countries, while requiring Arabs wishing to stay to obtain residency and later Israeli citizenship.