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Among Israel’s governing politicians — not least Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — there seems almost no willingness to accept a Palestinian state or start negotiations toward creating one.
They believe Hamas’s savage attack on Oct. 7 underscores just how dangerous a two-state solution would be for Israel. It would, in their view, create a neighboring nation over which Israel would have little or no security control.
Yet for Arab countries and, increasingly, Israel’s Western allies, Hamas’s incursion and the subsequent war in Gaza — still raging after almost four months with estimates of close to 30,000 people dead on all sides — make a two-state solution all the more urgent.
This week, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron struck a more forceful tone with a speech in which he laid out how the British government and partners might accept a Palestinian state even before Israel has agreed to one, and involve the United Nations.
“That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible,” he said.
Such words are anathema to Netanyahu and his coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history.
The US, by far the most important country when it comes to swaying Israel, says it hasn’t shifted its official stance regarding an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza. But its calls for one to be created eventually are getting louder.
For now, Israel isn’t listening as it continues with its campaign to destroy Hamas and ensure Oct. 7 is never repeated. But the pressure is mounting, including from its closest supporters.