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UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Portal) – Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday called for a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reiterating that Israel will do “whatever is necessary” to encourage Iran to develop a prevent atomic bomb.
His mention of a two-state solution, the first in years by an Israeli leader in the United Nations General Assembly, reflected US President Joe Biden’s support in Israel in August for the long-dormant proposal.
“A deal with the Palestinians based on two states for two peoples is what is right for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children,” Lapid said.
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He added that any settlement would depend on a peaceful Palestinian state that does not threaten Israel.
Lapid was speaking less than six weeks before a Nov. 1 election that could return right-wing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime opponent of the two-state solution, to power.
Israel seized East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — areas the Palestinians aspire to for an independent state — in a 1967 Middle East war. US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.
In his speech, Lapid again condemned Iran and expressed Israel’s determination to prevent its longtime enemy from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“The only way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to put a credible military threat on the table,” he said. “We have skills and we are not afraid to use them.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City, U.S. September 22, 2022. Portal/Mike Segar
Israel, widely believed to possess the Middle East’s only nuclear weapons, views Iran as an existential threat. Tehran denies trying to develop a nuclear weapon.
PALESTINIANS, US REACT
Efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian two-state agreement have long stalled.
Palestinians and human rights groups say Israel has consolidated its control over the occupied Palestinian territories through its military rule over millions of Palestinians and continued settlement building.
Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior figure in the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Portal that Lapid’s words “mean nothing”.
“Whoever wants a two-state solution has to implement it locally,” he said, respecting previously reached agreements, halting settlement expansion and recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides called Lapid’s speech “brave” in supporting the two-state solution.
Lapid praised the efforts of Middle Eastern countries to normalize relations and work with Israel. He urged Muslim countries from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia to make peace with it.
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Reporting by Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem; Editing by James Mackenzie and Howard Goller
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