Netanyahu again rejects Palestinian sovereignty amid renewed US push for two-state solution

(CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for Palestinian sovereignty after talks with US President Joe Biden on the future of Gaza on Saturday, suggesting that Israel’s security needs would be incompatible with the creation of a Palestinian state.

“I will not compromise with full Israeli security control over all territory west of Jordan, and this is against a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.

The Israeli leader did not give further details in his one-line message in Hebrew. The region west of Jordan includes Israel, the occupied West Bank and Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Israel has been fighting the militant group since the October 7 attack.

Biden and his senior officials — including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who visited Israel and the region last week — said the creation of a Palestinian state with Israel’s security guarantees is the only way to finally bring peace and security. Stability in the Middle East.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this Sunday called opposition to the two-state solution “unacceptable.”

“The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to a state for the Palestinian people, is unacceptable,” Guterres posted in X.

Amid reports that the United States, Egypt and Qatar want Israel to join a new phase of talks with Hamas, Netanyahu this weekend publicly rejected what Hamas described as conditions for freeing more Israeli hostages from Gaza. : End of war, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian enclaves and release of more Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

“If we accept this, our troops will go to waste. If we accept this, we will not be able to guarantee the security of our citizens,” Netanyahu said this Sunday.

There is a global demand for a Palestinian state

Netanyahu’s comments come amid disagreements with the United States, Israel’s most important ally, over what Gaza will look like after the conflict ends, and highlight the complicated position Netanyahu finds himself in.

The Israeli prime minister faces pressure from the international community to allow the creation of a viable Palestinian state and domestic pressure to guarantee Israel’s security, particularly from far-right members of his coalition.

Adding to the pressure are calls for early elections, which brought thousands of people to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday. Critics accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war to stay in power. Cabinet Minister for War Geddy Eisenkot said he hoped not, but also said an election should be held within months.

Netanyahu’s statement on Palestinian sovereignty appears to be in contrast to what President Biden said a day earlier, a CNN report suggests. Netanyahu told Biden in a private phone call last Friday that he does not rule out the possibility of a Palestinian state in any form, a person familiar with the conversation told CNN.

Self-propelled artillery howitzers roll in southern Israel along the border with the Gaza Strip on January 19. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

Biden administration officials have recently held talks about a future demilitarized Palestinian state, which the US president finds “interesting”.

After the phone call, the first in weeks, Biden told reporters he believed Netanyahu could finally agree to some kind of two-state solution. “There are different types of two-state solutions,” he said.

“There are a number of UN member states that don’t have their own military yet; a number of states that have limitations, so I think there are ways that this can work,” Biden added.

But the day after Biden spoke, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement: “In his conversation with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy to ensure that, once Hamas is destroyed, Israel must maintain security control over Gaza. .is no longer a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.

Biden and Netanyahu remain publicly at odds over the question of what will happen to Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas ends, despite intense U.S. efforts in recent months to engage Israeli and broader regional officials in a plan. Resolve decades of conflict.

Since the UN partition plan of 1947, the two-state solution has been the goal of the international community for decades, and many nations claim that it is the only way out of the conflict.

US President Joe Biden answers questions from the press at the White House on January 18, 2024. (Credit: Samuel Coram/Getty Images)

How Gaza will be governed after the war remains unknown, but Netanyahu has long opposed a two-state solution.

And while Netanyahu’s stance is internationally controversial, he faces pressure from more right-wing members of his cabinet who have sparked outrage with his suggestions about what should happen to people living in Gaza.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich defended the idea of ​​a Palestinian exodus from Gaza. He and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gwir drew ire when they advocated the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza.