[News Terms] The 'Two-State Solution' to End the Israel-Palestine War

As the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed faction Hamas enters its second month, the 'Two-state solution' for peaceful coexistence after the conflict is gaining attention. Although the possibility of an immediate resolution is slim, the two major global powers, the United States and China, have advocated this approach, with Russia, the European Union (EU), and others also expressing support.

The Two-state solution is one of the proposals to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It centers on establishing a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank based on the pre-1967 borders before the Third Middle East War, and dividing Jerusalem into east and west, with the Old City?home to significant Jewish and Islamic holy sites?under joint administration. Since the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, both sides have discussed this framework for about 20 years, but talks have been suspended for nearly a decade since 2014.

On the 1st (local time), people were walking to cross the Rafah border, which connects the southern Gaza Strip in Palestine to Egypt. On this day, the Rafah border checkpoint was opened to allow the movement of over 500 foreign passport holders and injured individuals within the Gaza Strip.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, as civilian massacres and innocent casualties in the Gaza Strip have escalated, the international community, including the Joe Biden administration in the United States, has begun to revisit the Two-state solution, urging both Israel and Palestine to recognize each other and coexist. Experts point out, though, that there are significant hurdles to realizing the Two-state solution.

First, Jewish settlements are deeply rooted in the West Bank, where Palestinians reside, which could easily lead to clashes. In Israel, the far-right coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has persisted, and it remains a challenging task to suppress the voices of hardline Jewish fundamentalists. Although Netanyahu is likely to be dismissed after this war due to his failure to detect Hamas's surprise attack and the resulting security lapses, it is expected that hardliners against Palestine will gain even more influence. A poll conducted in September by the think tank Israel Democracy Institute showed that the proportion of Israeli Jews supporting the Two-state solution dropped to 32%, down 15 percentage points from 47% in 2018. Anti-Israel sentiment within Palestine is also a variable; even if Hamas is decimated in this war, the emergence of a more hardline 'Hamas 2.0' cannot be ruled out.

On the 25th of last month (local time), U.S. President Joe Biden reaffirmed Israel's right to respond in this war but also proposed the Two-state solution. Given that Hamas's surprise attack triggered the war, returning to the previous status quo is impossible, and the next step's vision is precisely the Two-state solution. President Biden emphasized, "Israel and Palestine equally deserve to live side by side in safety, dignity, and peace."

Meanwhile, China, which recently assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, is expanding support among Arab countries by siding with Palestine and advocating the Two-state solution. On the 1st, Wang Yi, member of the Communist Party Central Political Bureau and Foreign Minister, during a phone call with Said Badr Al-Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister, emphasized "a full commitment to realizing the Two-state solution." The following day, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, stressed at a regular briefing that "China, as the rotating president of the Security Council, is taking responsible and meaningful actions to ensure the Palestinian issue returns to the track of the Two-state solution."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the 3rd, "We consider it a top priority for the parties involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to agree to a ceasefire," and "Although the situation is clearly difficult at present, it is necessary to resume negotiations for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state as resolved by the UN Security Council as soon as a ceasefire is achieved (the Two-state solution)."

Earlier, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez proposed ahead of the EU summit that "a summit should be organized to reach a final peace agreement between Israel and Palestine through the Two-state solution," and Pope Francis also mentioned in an interview with Italian media earlier this month that "the Two-state solution is necessary to end the war between Israel and Palestine."