Intel: House Middle East panel chairman questions Trump’s commitment to two-state solution

Jun 2, 2020

The chairman of the House’s Middle East panel questioned the Donald Trump administration’s stated commitment to a two-state solution during a Zoom interview with the Israel Policy Forum today.

Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said that he “didn’t reject” Trump’s peace Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal “out of hand” and that he was initially “hopeful” that the president had started referring to it as a “two-state solution.” However, Deutch went on to add that the plan raised “lots of questions about the viability of a Palestinian state.”

“There was a realization it could lead more to unilateral annexation, and then we started seeing a response from the outside world,” said Deutch. “What’s confusing is the plan envisioned, at some point … negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. It’s been everyone’s position that that’s how you get two states. But then we fast forward to where we are in this moment, and it doesn’t look like that commitment exists.”

Why it matters: While the Trump plan formally endorses a two-state solution, its proposal that Israel formally annex its West Bank settlements as well as the entire Jordan Valley would not allow for the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has secured an agreement with his rival, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, that would allow Netanyahu to proceed with annexation as soon as July.  

“A directly negotiated two-state solution is a mainstream position and expressing concern about unilateral annexation isn’t extreme at all,” said Deutch. “It’s the position of most of the largest cross-section of the American Jewish community.”