Israeli Opposition Leader: Two-State Solution Impossible

Urges Govt to Wall Off As Many Palestinians as Possible

The main opposition leader in Israel, the head of the center-left Zionist Union Isaac Herzog, has today declared a two-state solution to be “impossible,” telling a high-profile security conference that the goal should be to build as big a wall as possible to wall off as many Palestinians as possible.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took considerable heat during the most recent election campaign for his similar panning of the peace process, leading many to believe Herzog’s coalition represented the only real chance for a peace process. That chance too, however, seems to be fading.

Instead of trying for peace, Herzog urged the government to “erect a big wall between us,” saying his goal would be to wall in “as many Palestinians as possible, as quickly as possible,” and praising Ariel Sharon for starting the process of building the West Bank barrier.

While historically Sharon’s barrier has been panned by leftist groups as a humanitarian nightmare, Herzog suggested his only real problem was that it was never fully finished, separating all of the Palestinians from the various Israeli settlements, and from large chunks of Palestinian-owned but Israeli-occupied land.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.