Biden & Security Council ploy sinks two-state solution

The attempt by President Biden and the UN Security Council to adopt a specific two-state solution (Biden/Security Council Solution) to end more than 100 years of conflict between Jews and Arabs has turned out to be a political disaster – virtually ensuring any future plan to create an independent state between Jordan and Israel is dead and buried.

The Biden/Security Council Solution involved:

1.       America submitting a draft resolution to the Security Council calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – Resolution S/2024/448 – containing the following clause which has nothing to do with a ceasefire:

 “Reiterat(ing) its  unwavering  commitment  to  the  vision  of  the  two-State
solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace
within secure and recognized borders, consistent with international law and relevant
UN resolutions, and in this regard stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip
with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority;”

2.       The Security Council adopting Resolution S/2024/448 as Security Council Resolution 2735 on 10 June – laying the foundation for Israel to be sledgehammered into accepting their solution.

President Obama should reveal who came up with this stratagem.

A similar ploy had been attempted on 23 December 2016 when a clearly-frustrated President Obama and Vice President Biden – in the act of vacating the White House for President-elect Donald Trump without having achieved any breakthrough in implementing Obama’s own 2011 two-state solution – decided to abstain rather than veto Security Council Resolution 2334 which:

·         “Reiterat(ed) its vision of a region where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,

·         Reaffirmed that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;

This Obama-Biden abstention was a vindictive act against Israel’s national interest and ignored that:

·         Israel’s legal right to establish settlements was done in accordance with Articles 6 and 25 of the 1922 Mandate for Palestine and Article 80 of the United Nations own Charter

·         Resolution 2334 was beyond the power of the Security Council to adopt because of Article 80.

Biden and the Security Council haven’t since 2016 been prepared to consider any solution other than a two-state solution that meets the conditions embodied in Security Council Resolution 2334.

The Biden/Security Council Solution backfired badly when Israel’s Knesset on 17 July voted overwhelmingly to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state.

That left a very different solution – never discussed by Biden or the Security Council since its first publication on 8 June 2022 – still available to be possibly implemented : The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) – calling for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity.

HKOPS was rejected by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu when – addressing the US Congress on 24 July – he outlined his solution for Gaza – but pointedly made no reference to the future of Judea and Samaria (West Bank):

“Following our victory, with the help of regional partners, the demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza can also lead to a future of security, prosperity and peace. That’s my vision for Gaza.”

This leaves open the possibility of partially implementing HKOPS to divide sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between Israel and Jordan by redrawing the existing international border between their two sovereign states – independently of Gaza.

Biden, the Security Council, Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah should get together and try to make it happen.

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