Which Are the "Two States" Obama Is Talking About?

As per the annual custom, the political bazaar has opened at the United Nations General Assembly. With it comes a throng of world leaders, each of whom speaks how they want and about whatever they want. They talk in a manner that will satisfy their own interests and aims without any consideration for the gravity of their speech or the importance of their suggestions. That’s because each of them is aware that they will return to their own country and discover that nothing has changed. And they’ll realize that people have forgotten everything that they had originally heard.

It was clear that the tragic situation in Syria and the destructive war that is unleashing ruin and suffering on that beautiful Levantine country dominated most of the proceedings and formed the center of interest for almost all of the speakers. Nevertheless, the Palestinian issue was also present in one form or another; U.S. President Barack Obama affirmed the United States’ commitment to the two-state solution, saying no more and no less. He did not say whether a two-state solution was still possible, if there were obstructions facing a solution of this kind or even which was the obstructive side. Equally, he did not discuss how to reach a solution such as this but simply made do with the customary title of the “two-state solution.” In reality, the Secretary General of the United Nations was clearer when he said that the two-state solution was the only choice and added, “The door may be closing for good [due to] the increased growth of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory…”

Israel has not only closed the doors to the two-state solution by building settlements, confiscating land, turning Jerusalem Jewish, continually waging a holy war and striving to split time into single events, but has also begun to talk openly of “the end” of the two-state solution. This significant and dangerous statement was made by Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak when he referred to the suggested plan of unilateral withdrawal from the remainder of the West Bank, while of course retaining the Jordan Valley, the settlements and Jerusalem in an upgraded version of Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal deployed in Gaza. This would effectively end the conversation about any possible solution: both the two-state solution and the solution of a single state with dual nationality imagined by some of us and some of them.

And so long years have gone by in futile negotiation; years went by and the futile negotiations came to a halt; conversations were repeated with the futile calls about the necessity of solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All of it is because of the arrogance of power and the madness for expansion on the part of Israel. Also on the part of the great powers — the United States most of all — there has been silence or an inability to pressure Israel to achieve peace, stability and shared living in the region instead of sowing the seeds of sectarianism, violence and hatred. These seeds result in Israel’s policies of expansion, as well as the dismissal of all demands for a just peace and all invitations to international meetings.

Mr. President Obama, the most powerful candidate in the running for a second presidential term, if you were serious in what you called for, demand serious and quick action so that the circumstances do not explode because of the continuous repression and denial of rights.