Biden changes stance on adopting UN two-state solution
President Biden has seemingly changed his mind following the horrific Simchat Torah massacre and hostage-taking in Israel on 7 October.
Addressing the Nation – Biden declared:
“And as I said in Israel: As hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace. We cannot give up on a two-state solution.”
Biden’s use of the phrase “a two-state solution” instead of “the two-state solution called for in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 dated 23 December 2016” (Resolution 2334) – has great significance.
Many two-state solutions have been proposed but never successfully implemented during the 100-year-old unresolved conflict between Arabs and Jews.
Three of those two-state solutions came from the League of Nations or the United Nations:
- In 1922: The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine limited the right of the Jewish People to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in just 22% of Palestine – the land designated on scores of banners and chanted at anti-Israel demonstrations world-wide today: “From the River (Jordan) to the (Mediterranean) Sea”
The remaining 78% of Palestine – “between the Jordan River and the eastern boundary of Palestine as ultimately determined” was to be Jew-free – and has remained so ever since.
The Jews accepted that subdivision – the Arabs didn’t.
- In 1947: The United Nations called for the land between the River and the Sea to be divided into two States: one Jewish and one Arab – with Jerusalem coming under UN control.
Two Arab states would then occupy about 83% of former Palestine – with one Jewish State occupying the remaining 17%.
The Jews accepted this proposal – the Arabs didn’t.
- In 2016: President Obama and Vice President Bi den directed US Ambassador to the UN – Samantha Power – to abstain – rather than veto – Resolution 2334 – as the Obama-Biden administration was in caretaker mode vacating the White House to make way for President-elect Donald Trump.
Secretary of State John Kerry explained their extraordinary decision:
“They [Israel: ed] fail to recognize that this friend, the United States of America, that has done more to support Israel than any other country, this friend that has blocked countless efforts to delegitimize Israel, cannot be true to our own values – or even the stated democratic values of Israel – and we cannot properly defend and protect Israel if we allow a viable two-state solution to be destroyed before our own eyes.
And that’s the bottom line: the vote in the United Nations was about preserving the two-state solution. That’s what we were standing up for: Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, living side by side in peace and security with its neighbours. That’s what we are trying to preserve for our sake and for theirs.”
What Obama and Biden saw as “a viable two-state solution” in Resolution 2334 in 2016 remains unimplemented in 2023 – whilst the UN has become the bastion of sanctimonious Jew-bashing since being weaponised with Resolution 2334.
A new two-state solution emanated from Saudi Arabia on 8 June 2022 – the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) – asserting:
“Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighbourhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines. “
HKOPS calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity.
Gaza is certainly on the backburner now – but this should not prevent Israel and Jordan from negotiating to divide the West Bank between their two respective States.
Biden and his advisers have amazingly never mentioned this game-changing solution since its publication 17 months ago.
Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine: A two-state solution Biden needs to urgently consider.
Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network
