Today’s recognition of the State of Palestine by three European nations – Norway, Spain and Ireland – is an important step on the road to meaningful conflict resolution. The successful development of a peaceful, secure and prosperous Palestinian state next to Israel is the surest route to promoting Israel’s own long-term security and its acceptance and recognition regionally and globally.
Those who have always opposed a two-state solution will claim that today’s recognition of statehood is somehow a ‘reward for terror’ and a ‘gift’ to Hamas, but they are severely misguided. Recognition of both a Palestinian state and a state of Israel with borders based on the pre-1967 Green Line with mutually-agreed adjustments is precisely what extremists among Palestinians and Israelis do not want.
J Street urgently calls on President Biden to lay out a bold vision – a ‘Biden Doctrine’ – for the region that includes a clear commitment to American recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state. The President should outline clear, achievable steps that Palestinian leaders must take to gain that American recognition and should pledge to be the President who will bring the State of Palestine to full realization and acceptance.
Similarly, the President’s vision should outline clearly the steps required of Israeli leadership to gain full regional recognition and normalization with its neighbors. He should pledge to be the President who will bring about the full integration of Israel into a comprehensive, regional security and economic alignment with neighboring states, including Palestine.
The refusal of the Netanyahu government to outline a political vision for the ‘day after’ the fighting stops means that this conflict will know no end. Israelis, Palestinians, regional neighbors and the broader global community will be condemned to relive the nightmare of October 7 and these past seven months again and again so long as Palestinians do not have freedom and Israelis do not have security.
The steps being taken by Israel’s most extreme ministers to punish and bankrupt the Palestinian Authority for taking international action aimed at promoting conflict resolution and the application of the rule of international law to this conflict are outrageous. The Biden Administration should resolutely oppose them.
Only the American president has the platform and the influence to offer a clear, compelling vision for ending not just the terrible fighting in Gaza but the broader conflict once and for all. Now is the time for him to do so.