U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday morning laid the groundwork for arguing that Israel needs a new Arab state in order to remain “democratic and Jewish.”
Speaking with President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem at the opening of the second straight day of talks between Israel and PA leaders, Clinton stated, “The status quo is unsustainable” even if it can last for another 30 years. “The only path to ensure Israel’s future as a secure democratic and Jewish state“ is an Arab state, headed by the Palestinian Authority, “alongside” Israel.
The United States has adopted almost all of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s demands that a new PA state should include all of Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem that were restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, nearly 2,000 years after the destruction of the Second Temple and the end of Jewish rule over the city. Many PA clerics and leaders deny that the Temples ever existed.
Clinton's speech effectively expresses the thesis that the continued existence of a “Jewish Israel” is dependent on transforming all of Judea and Samaria, where 300,000 Jews live, into a new country under the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority.
She did not mention the building freeze on Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, which is to expire in 12 days and which Abbas demands be extended as a condition for continuing discussions with Israel.
The Obama administration has made no direct demands of the Palestinian Authority, which continues a campaign of incitement against Israel despite several previous agreements that conditioned future talks on a halt to agitation.
The State Department last week ignored a reporter’s query on what concessions the Palestinian Authority must make to Israel. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told Israel National News Wednesday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu insists on two things: that a new PA state be de-militarized—meaning without the capability to attack Israel with rockets and artillery—and that it recognize Israel as Jewish country.
The American strategy appears to give a ladder to Abbas, who has perched himself on a limb by refusing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand that he recognize Israel as a “Jewish” country. “I hear the term two states” but not ”two peoples,” the Prime Minister told the Cabinet Sunday morning.
Clinton put the ball back in Israel’s court by implying that Israel cannot remain Jewish unless it surrenders areas that Abbas wants and which have been part of Israel for more than four decades.
Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would virtually deny its demand that Israel allow the immigration of several million foreign Arabs who claim Israel as their ancestral home dating back to 1948, when the State of Israel was established.