Biden administration rhetoric on two-state solution not backed up by action: Analyst

 

al Jazeera

44m ago

 (01:20 GMT)

Biden administration rhetoric on two-state solution not backed up by action: Analyst

Stephen Zunes, Middle East expert and professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, said the goal of the Israeli government is clear: Annexation of the occupied West Bank and the US is doing nothing to advance a viable Palestinian state.

“The Biden administration has worked on the pretence that they can somehow convince them [the Israelis] to moderate. But now it appears that Biden has finally concluded that they cannot proceed with Netanyahu. The question, though, is that there is a lot of opposition in Israel – outside of Netanyahu and the far right – to any kind of viable Palestinian state,” Zunes told Al Jazeera.

“Biden keeps talking about a two-state solution, but he recognises Israel and not Palestine. He’s encouraging countries to unilaterally recognise Israel while actively discouraging countries or the United Nations from recognising Palestine. He refuses to condition aid to Israel or stop vetoing UN Security Council resolutions. There is nothing that Biden is doing that really backs up his rhetoric for a two-state solution,” he said.

Politically, Biden’s unwavering support for Netanyahu amid the war on Gaza does not make sense, Zunes said.

“Politically, this is a disaster for Biden. I think, frankly, he is an ideologue who really believes in the Israeli project and is wedded to this naive assumption that by being nice to Netanyahu he might be able to get the Israelis to compromise even though that has been shown over and over again, that it simply does not work.”