London – Britain: Israeli-Palestinian Two-State Solution Almost Dead

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    A vandalized election campaign billboard of Israeli Prime Minister and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu is reflected on a bus window in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)London – Britain said on Tuesday prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are almost dead because of expanding Jewish settlement in occupied territory, and warned Israel it was losing international support.

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    Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke as Israelis voted in an election likely to yield a hardline rightist government keener to thicken settlement on land where Palestinians want to establish statehood than seek peace.

    “I hope that whatever Israeli government emerges …. that it will recognize that we are approaching the last chance to bring about such a solution,” Hague told parliament.

    “I condemn recent Israeli decisions to expand settlements. I speak regularly to Israeli leaders stressing our profound concern that Israel’s settlement policy is losing it the support of the international community and will make a two-state solution impossible,” he said.

    Asked whether the European Union should tie trade with Israel to progress on peace talks, Hague said the bloc still had work to do, in conjunction with the United States, to establish “incentives and disincentives” regarding further negotiations.

    “…There is a clock ticking with potentially disastrous consequences for the peace process,” he added.

    Opinion polls predict Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will return to power at the head of a coalition dominated by religious and nationalist pro-settler parties which give short shrift to US-backed peace negotiations.

    They have been frozen since 2010 over Palestinian objections to continued settlement construction. Netanyahu has demanded the Palestinians return to talks without preconditions.

    Hague said 2013 was a crucial year for the moribund peace process given Israeli elections for a new government and the start of US President Barack Obama’s second term.

    “If we do not make progress in the coming year, people will increasingly conclude that a two-state solution has become impossible,” said Hague. Both Israelis and Palestinians should return to talks without preconditions, he said.

    Hague said he would make peace talks and efforts towards a two-state solution – the basis of a US-backed peace process for almost 20 years – “top of the agenda” during a planned visit to Washington next week.


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    9 Comments
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    Liepa
    Liepa
    11 years ago

    I say Britain should be more concerned with the muslims eventual uprising in the UK then the Israeli peace (piece) process.
    Coming soon live in London! G-d save the sultan!

    satmarrabbi
    satmarrabbi
    11 years ago

    moshech will only come if there will be no isreal

    Boochie
    Boochie
    11 years ago

    Arafat had his chance with Clinton and turned it down – don’t blame Israel now

    11 years ago

    What a bunch of malarchy. There is no one for Israel to negotiate with on the Palestinan side. Once again, the anit-Semitic English are blaming the Jews.

    Dr_Bert_Miller
    Dr_Bert_Miller
    11 years ago

    Ok, if the plan is to have a “two-state” solution, the Israelis are certainly entitled to know how that relationship will operate. When the democratically elected Hamas fellows from Gaza win the next “West Bank” election, do they expect to exercise their divinely-ordained right of “self defense” against an “occupying power” and regularly fire rockets into Israel? Is this the type of peace that a “Two-State” solution will bring? How can any intelligent, non-self-delusional person think that this anything other than a Final Solution to achieve the objective of a Judenrein Palestine?

    11 years ago

    If this is their Foreign Secretary, they are in deep trouble. He thinks the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the top of his agenda. Where is a nuclear Iran on his agenda?

    Israel has withdrawn from large areas to advance the peace process; what have the Palestinians ever done to advance the peace process?

    Israel is only building in areas where it expects to incorporate the land into Israel in exchange for land swaps with the Palestinians, if there ever is peace, which I don’t expect.

    If the Palestinians truly wanted peace, there would have been peace a long time ago.