Just hours after reports began to emerge of the Obama-Abdullah Plan, which sought a two-state solution involving a contiguous Palestinian state which would be banned from having a military or entering any defensive pacts, one aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the very idea of a two-state solution, calling it “childish and stupid.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu has reacted very coldly to Western calls for a two-state solution in the past, and many members of his coalition government are opposed to it in principle. Roughly two thirds of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party would reportedly oppose the deal, as presumably would many members of the smaller hawkish parties.
The Palestinian Authority seems willing to negotiate, and sources say they would be willing to relinquish direct control over al-Aqsa, provided the holy site remained under general Islamic control. But while Israel is reportedly planning to dismantle certain illegal outposts in the West Bank, those sort of blanket dismissals coming from the Prime Minister’s aides suggest the plan faces an uphill battle, at best.
Nothing will encourage the intransigent Israelis to reconsider their policy as much as will the cutting off the billions of dollars in funding they receive from the US government. The only reason these injustices have continued for over 60 years is because the US has allowed it.