France and Saudi Arabia hope to use this year’s gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly and the increasingly horrific war in the Gaza Strip to inject new urgency into the quest for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Those efforts include a new road map for eventual Palestinian statehood in territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war, and moves to join a global majority in recognizing such a state before it has been established.
Britain, Canada and Australia on Sunday, joining that have already done so, and France is expected to follow suit at this week’s General Assembly.
But the efforts to push a two-state solution face major obstacles, beginning with vehement opposition from the United States and Israel. The U.S. has from even attending the General Assembly. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is opposed to Palestinian statehood, has threatened to take unilateral action in response 鈥 possibly including .
That would put the Palestinians’ dream of independence even further out of reach.
Prospects have never been dimmer
The creation of a Palestinian state in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza has long been seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict, which began before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
Proponents say this would allow Israel to exist as a democracy with a Jewish majority. The alternative, they say, is the status quo in which Jewish Israelis have full rights and Palestinians live under varying degrees of Israeli control, something .
“Israel must understand that the one state solution, with the subjugation of the Palestinian people without rights — that is absolutely intolerable,鈥 U.N. Secretary-General Ant贸nio Guterres said last week. 鈥淲ithout a two-state solution, there will be no peace in the Middle East.”
Peace talks launched in the early 1990s repeatedly faltered amid violence and aimed at preventing a Palestinian state. No substantive negotiations have been held since Netanyahu returned to office in 2009.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem, considers it part of its capital, and has long encouraged the growth of Jewish settlements Palestinian neighborhoods.
The occupied West Bank is home to over 500,000 settlers with Israeli citizenship and some 3 million Palestinians , with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in scattered enclaves.
In Gaza, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, displaced some 90% of the population of 2 million, and . A new offensive threatens .
Netanyahu’s government and most of Israel’s political class were opposed to Palestinian statehood even before the war. The Trump administration has shown no interest in reviving peace talks, instead calling for the relocation of much of Gaza’s population to other countries, even as critics say it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
The French-Saudi plan
Perhaps hoping this is a darkest-before-dawn moment, France and Saudi Arabia have advanced a phased plan to end the conflict by establishing a demilitarized state governed by the Palestinian Authority with international assistance.
The plan calls for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, the return of all hostages and a complete Israeli withdrawal. Hamas would hand power to a politically independent committee under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority 鈥 something it has already agreed to 鈥 and lay down its arms, which it has not.
The international community would help the Palestinian Authority rebuild Gaza and govern the territories, possibly with the help of foreign peacekeepers. Regional peace and integration, likely including Saudi normalization of ties with Israel, would follow.
The 193-member world body approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing the so-called earlier this month.
American and Israeli opposition
The United States and Israel say the international push for a Palestinian state rewards Hamas and makes it harder to reach a deal to halt the war and return the remaining hostages.
The Gaza ceasefire talks broke down again when Israel carried out , one of the main mediators. The U.S. had in July, blaming Hamas, and Israel in March.
Israel also says that creating a Palestinian state would allow Hamas to carry out another Oct. 7-style attack on an even wider scale. Hamas leaders they would accept a state on the 1967 lines, but the group remains formally committed to Israel’s destruction.
Netanyahu portrays international recognition of Palestinian statehood as an attack on Israel. During a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, Netanyahu said 鈥渋t is clear that if unilateral actions are taken against us, it simply invites unilateral actions on our part.鈥
Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners large parts of the West Bank, which would make it virtually impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state.
The U.S. has not taken a public position on the issue, but in an interview with Fox News, Rubio linked 鈥渢his conversation about annexation” to the issue of statehood recognition.
The United Arab Emirates without saying what effect it might have on the 2020 Abraham Accords, in which the country normalized ties with Israel.
There are other obstacles
The French-Saudi plan sidesteps the most divisive issues in the conflict: final borders, the fate of the settlements, from past wars, security arrangements, the status of Jerusalem and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
It also relies heavily on the Palestinian Authority, the current leadership of which who view them as corrupt and autocratic. Israel says they are not fully committed to peace and accuses the Palestinian Authority of incitement .
The plan calls for Palestinian elections to be held within a year, but President Mahmoud Abbas has delayed previous votes , blaming Israeli restrictions. Hamas, which won the last national elections in 2006, would be excluded unless it gives up its weapons and recognizes Israel.
All of which means the plan is likely to end up on the mound of past Mideast accords, parameters and road maps, leaving Israel in full control of the , ruling millions of Palestinians who are denied basic rights.
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