In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that the expansion of war in the Middle East benefits no one, and the establishment of two states is the only solution to the Palestinian issue. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remarked that Lebanon is on the brink of war and cannot afford to become another Gaza.
President Biden reiterated his long-standing position on the Palestinian issue, which has also been the official stance of the U.S., that the only guarantee of Israel’s security and the only path forward is the two-state solution. The Biden administration has been attempting for a long time to forge an agreement between Israel and the Arab world.
On the other hand, Israel has repeatedly stated its unwillingness to grant Palestinians an independent state. Particularly after October 7, 2023, Israel has reiterated this stance several times, and the Israeli parliament even passed a resolution against the recognition of a Palestinian state. This refusal does not reduce the decades-long conflict but instead escalates tensions. Conversely, Arab countries have long maintained that they are ready to recognize Israel on the condition that Israel accepts the establishment of a Palestinian state. This offer remains open today.
Before October 7, 2023, there was a proposal to divide Palestine into three zones. However, Saudi Arabia has consistently maintained that the Palestinian state should be established based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently rejected the calls for peace talks and the demands for an independent Palestinian state. Some right-wing factions in Israel also oppose the two-state solution. On the other hand, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who controls the West Bank, remains a proponent of the two-state solution and has consistently urged the international community to support it. Hamas, however, views the establishment of Israel as illegal.
Over the past three decades, several rounds of negotiations have been held to implement the two-state solution. However, due to the complexities of the conflict and recurring acts of violence, the obstacles to achieving this solution have only increased. Following Israel’s aggression in Gaza, a global debate is ongoing about which formula can bring lasting peace to Palestine. The main reason is that the Oslo Accords of 1993, which aimed to establish a parallel, independent, and sovereign state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem alongside Israel, have failed in practice. Israel’s devastating bombing and shelling in northern Gaza have forced 80% of Gaza’s population to seek refuge either in UN shelters or in southern Gaza.
The majority of the Arab population in Palestine, about three million people, resides in the West Bank, commonly known as the “West Bank.” They have also been victims of Israeli aggression. Israel has cut off Gaza’s connection to the West Bank, designating it a “no-go area” for Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, has lost control of Gaza, and in the West Bank, it has failed to protect Palestinians from Israeli military and settler attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s aggressive actions against Palestinians aim to establish a new political landscape in the Middle East, one that leaves no room for an independent Palestinian state. Although the international community, including Arab and Muslim countries, as well as the U.S., continue to insist on the “two-state formula,” Israel’s long-standing stance, coupled with its actions post-October 7, has so drastically altered the situation that the hope of achieving lasting peace in Palestine through this formula seems bleak.
The two-state formula, which originated from a 1947 UN resolution to divide Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, was never acceptable to extremist Jews. Their vision was to expel Palestinians from the entire region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River and establish a Jewish state. After the creation of Israel in 1948, their actions were aimed at completing this plan. In the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, Israel defeated Arab forces and not only occupied more land than the UN had allocated for the Jewish state but also subjected millions of Palestinians to terrorism, forcing them to flee to neighboring Arab countries like Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.
These displaced Palestinians, whose numbers have now reached the millions, continue to live in stateless and impoverished conditions. They have never renounced their right to return to their homes in the areas that Israel occupied. In the 1967 war, Israel also occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, adding another layer to the Arab-Israeli conflict, as Israel now controlled the West Bank, Gaza, and Syria’s Golan Heights.
In January 1967, four Arab countries—Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon—submitted a resolution to the UN Security Council proposing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state comprising the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. In exchange, the Arab countries were willing to recognize Israel, establish normal relations, and guarantee its borders under international law. However, Israel boycotted this Security Council meeting, and the U.S. vetoed the resolution.
Thus, Israel missed a historic opportunity to resolve the Palestinian issue and establish lasting peace in the Middle East. According to Professor Noam Chomsky, the lack of peace and the recurring conflicts in the Middle East are partly due to U.S. backing of Israel. Since 1967, Israel has rejected every peace offer made by Arab countries, often at the behest of the U.S. However, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, both the U.S. and Israel reluctantly accepted the “two-state formula.” This shift was driven by changing conditions in the Middle East and the rise of the more liberal, left-leaning Labor Party in Israel, which replaced the hardline right-wing parties.
However, in 2009, when Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition returned to power, it erected new obstacles to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state under the Oslo Accords. These obstacles included turning Israel into a purely Jewish state and constructing Jewish settlements in areas of East Jerusalem with a significant Palestinian population. Most observers believe that the “two-state formula” is no longer viable. The biggest obstacle is the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 settlers now reside. Removing these settlers to create a Palestinian state seems impossible. Instead, there are growing calls for a single state shared by both Palestinians and Jews, with equal political, legal, and economic rights for all citizens.
The strongest argument in favor of a single state is that the number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is roughly equal. Lasting peace and reconciliation between them seem possible only through a one-state solution. However, Israel has rejected this as well. In Israel’s view, the only solution to the Palestinian issue is to resettle all Palestinians in Jordan, a proposal that amounts to permanently dispossessing the Palestinians of their homeland, something the Arab world will never accept.