Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Middle East trip (Jan. 29-31) was described as an opportunity for positive discussions on regional issues. However, an Israeli drone raid on Iran and the deadliest West Bank Palestinian violence in several years, taking the lives of seven Israelis, became the grim backdrop as Blinken sat down for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel Not on Board With Two-State Solution Offered by Blinken
Discussions with Netanyahu took center stage, as Blinken continued to push the White House’s two-state solution, in which Palestine and Israel become geographically defined and governed nations. First proposed in a British report in 1937, the idea has never garnered any political or popular support from either side. And after decades of similar proposals, nothing has changed. According to The Wall Street Journal:
“Mr. Netanyahu said it would benefit both the US and Israel if more Arab countries were to join the Abraham Accords, a normalization deal between Israel and several Arab neighbors including the United Arab Emirates that was signed under the Trump administration. ‘Expanding the circle of peace, working to close — finally — the file of the Arab-Israeli conflict, I think, would also help us achieve a workable solution with our Palestinian neighbors,’ he said.”
Hearing the Israeli PM extol the virtues of the former president’s success in the Middle East was probably not what Blinken wanted to hear. But as the Foggy Bottom leader found out, the Palestinians weren’t enamored with the two-state message, either. So, after meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken went to Ramallah in the West Bank to deliver the same message to Abbas, with the same disappointing result.
Abbas Meeting Vanilla Boilerplate
Antony Blinken (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The official readout on the Abbas meeting was vanilla boilerplate. “Secretary Blinken reiterated that Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of security, freedom, and prosperity, and reaffirmed the US administration’s commitment to a two-state solution,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. But whatever happy face Price wanted to place on the Blinken-Abbas talks, a prominent DC-based daily had a different take. “On the topic of lasting peace, many Palestinians and Israelis view this visit by a top US diplomat as just another episode in a long-running show, with well-worn themes and a cast of reappearing characters,” the newspaper reported.
When the subject of the tired two-state solution was taken to the people of Israel and the Palestinian areas, the reaction was unambiguous. “We are not counting on anything from Blinken and from the Americans … the two-state solution is like a song the Americans sing when they want to pacify us. It’s like a lullaby you sing to children to put them to sleep,” a young Palestinian accountant told the outlet. Regional opinion polling does not differ from those sentiments.
“According to a survey published last week by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research, 33% of Palestinians and 34% of Israeli Jews say they support it, a significant drop from data collected in 2020. Two-thirds of Palestinians and 53% of Israeli Jews said they opposed the two-state solution,” Reuters reported. Obviously, the Biden administration needs a new spiel. The Blinken peace mission fizzled.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
