Isreal Being Pressured To Accept 2 State Solution
A day after US President Barack Obama called on Israel and the Palestinians to “redouble efforts” towards a two-state solution, officials in Jerusalem assessed that Israel will eventually have no other option but to accept the establishment of a Palestinian state, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will have to adopt a two-state solution because Washington will not give up on this issue, the officials reportedly said.
Israeli officials told the radio station that if Netanyahu agrees to adopt the road map peace plan, he will prevent Obama’s administration from pressuring Israel into accepting the establishment of a Palestinian state in different circumstances.
The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the report.
Senior diplomats involved in preparing US envoy George Mitchell’s upcoming visit to Israel reportedly said that Netanyahu will insist on continued settlement construction to accommodate natural growth.
New ways to incorporate the Jewish state’s needs into the new US foreign policy will also be examined, the officials said.
Mitchell will land in Israel on Tuesday. He is expected to meet with President Shimon Peres and with Netanyahu, as well as with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Late on Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that she was unaware of any agreement between her country’s previous administration and Israel concerning the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
“I do not recall any agreement between Israel and George Bush’s… previous government, according to which Israel will be authorized to extend the construction of settlements in the West Bank,” Clinton said at a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the State Department.
“There is no memory of any informal and oral agreements. If they did occur, which of course people say they did, they did not become part of the official position of the United States government.
