Paris conference to try setting guidelines on elected Israeli officials

The upcoming summit in Paris on the Arab-Israeli conflict will lay down a number of guidelines it expects Israel to adopt, including disavowing elected officials who oppose a two-state solution. 

Israel will be expected to adopt a number of guidelines formulated and accepted by approximately 70 participating countries at an international summit in Paris this Sunday, focusing on implementation of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“The participants…call on each side to independently demonstrate, through policies and actions, a genuine commitment to the two-state solution and refrain from unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of final-status negotiations, in order to rebuild trust and create a path back to meaningful direct negotiations,” read a text, obtained by Haaretz, of an original draft summary of the conference.

Such “policies and actions” will include assurances on the part of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to “restate their commitment to the two-state solution and to disavow official voices on their side that reject this solution.”

Essentially, Israel will be expected to reject the opinions and positions of democratically elected officials such as Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Agricultural Minister Uri Ariel, all of whom oppose the two-state solution.

Ironically, the draft text also says that the conference participants will note “with particular interest United States Secretary of State (John Kerry’s) remarks on 28 December 2016, in which he stressed that no solution could be imposed,” implying that the participants will not endorse a solution that will be forced on Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed concern that the summit could lay the path for another one-sided UN Security Council resolution against Israel and has made efforts to ensure that such a scenario not come to fruition.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News