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Coalition Members Doubt Viability of Two-State Solution

Several Members of Knesset cast doubt on the viability of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli parliamentarians discussed their lack of faith in the feasibility of a two-state solution at the Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem Monday.

“Six US secretaries of state all failed to bring a two-state solution,” noted Likud MK and Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. “If a formula doesn’t work time after time, then you need to rethink the formula.”

“We need to rethink the paradigm of this region, about the foundation that is preventing the two people here from living together,” she added.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the US and current Kulanu MK Michael Oren pointed to the recent election of President-elect Donald Trump, which in his mind, “spells the end of the two-state solution.”

While Trump has previously expressed interest in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a solution which he would regard as “the ultimate deal,” he has not explicitly committed to the two-state solution. Notably, the Republican party at its convention this past July removed any reference of support for the two-state solution from its party platform.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Jewish Home party, which opposes the two-state solution, said that its relevance relies more on Israel’s Prime Minister than on the incoming US Administration.

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“The question is not what (Donald Trump) will do, but what the prime minister will ask for,” Bennett said.

“We must, for the first time in history, say what we really want,” he continued. “We cannot expect support if we don’t say in a loud voice what we want.”

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News