BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday insisted that there will be no binational state and said that Palestinian failure to accept the reality of Israel’s existence is at the root of the current impasse in the diplomatic process.

Netanyahu told his cabinet yesterday, “I want to make clear, Israel will not be a bi-national state.” He was responding to concerns expressed by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was speaking at the annual Saban Forum at the Brookings Institute in Washington over the weekend. Kerry said “that current trends… are imperilling the viability of a two-state solution” and predicted a scenario in which the Palestinian Authority (PA) collapses, forcing Israel to take control of the West Bank in its entirety.

In his own taped address to the Saban Forum, Netanyahu himself said that “The only workable solution is not a unitary state, but a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state.” However, he explained that Palestinian rejection of the Jewish state’s legitimacy is the route of the deadlock in negotiations. “The Palestinians have not yet been willing to cross that conceptual bridge, that emotional bridge, of giving up the dream – not of a state next to Israel, but a state instead of Israel.”

Also addressing the Saban Forum, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that “A one-state solution is no solution” and warned that the alternative to PA rule in the West Bank is “the black flag of ISIS.” Asked what she would do to address the conflict from the White House, she said “I would as president begin to move forward again,” explaining that there are “steps short of a final agreement” which could be reached, especially over borders.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid also spoke and branded ending the conflict with the Palestinians the “only priority” for Israel. He argued for a resolution within a regional framework and called for Israel to “gather the Sunni countries, go to a regional summit.”