Rep. Jim Himes, Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee who formerly backed the two-state solution, now acknowledges the idea is likely “dead.”
By World Israel News Staff
A senior Democratic congressman said this week that the two-state solution appears to be dead – done in by Hamas’s invasion of Israel in October 2023.
On Sunday, Rep. Jim Himes (CT-D) appeared on Fox News to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the Trump administration’s efforts to cut wasteful spending.
Himes, a long-time supporter of Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution, acknowledged in the interview that the two-state solution no long seems relevant.
Responding to a Newsweek article published last week under the headline, “The Two-State Solution Died With Ariel and Kfir Bibas,” referring to the two young Israeli hostages murdered in captivity in Gaza, Himes said the two-state solution likely was already dead following the invasion of October 7, 2023.
“As it happens, I just spent a week in Israel and had about two hours with the prime minister, and I think the two-state solution died not with the brutal murder of these hostages, but frankly, it has been on life support for a very long time, and the Hamas attack on Israel…probably ended that.”
Himes added that Israel was likely to resume its war against Hamas, citing the terror group’s ongoing abuse of hostages, including parading those set to be released.
“You just can’t see hostages treated the way these hostages have been treated,” he said.
Hamas, Himes continued, must be “taken out of the equation.”
While acknowledging that the two-state solution appears to have been rendered irrelevant, Himes said he hoped that Israel and the Palestinian Authority would engage in talks to de-escalate tensions in Judea and Samaria.
“There needs to be some solution,” Himes said. “There are millions of Palestinians who are enraged. Israel will never be secure as long as they are living in a very small sliver of land with millions of enraged Palestinians.”
