Shimon Peres Summons Netanyahu To Decide On Two-State Solution

Former Israeli president, Shimon Peres, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to clarify whether he is in favor or against a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Peace negotiations can be resumed at any time, as Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas has said he is ready to go back to the negotiating table. The same has been said by Netanyahu.

Peres elaborated on his message to Netanyahu: “the Prime Minister should clarify whether Israel is in favor of the two-state solution.”

As keynote speaker for a panel that discussed the political situation in the Middle East, Peres said that “one-state solution will not be a binational state, but that only an Arab state could spell the end of the Jewish democratic state. He added that a withdrawal from a two-state solution will result in the end of the Jewish state.”

Questioned about his views on the absence of the appointment of a head of Israeli diplomacy, Peres, who has acted as Foreign Minister in previous years said that he was concerned.

“What especially worries me is not that there is no foreign minister, but that there is no foreign policy. It can not be that there is a state without a foreign policy clear and precise” he argued before underlining that the current Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel ”is opposed to the two-state solution.”

Summing up the long passage of two decades of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, Peres revealed that “talking to Arafat was much more difficult than talking with Abu Mazen, but never gave up.”

He insisted that any process of dialogue should be started unconditionally by both parties.

“There can not be conditions for resuming negotiations, I have met many Arab leaders and the most comfortable of all to negotiate is Abu Mazen. We can not give up,” he added.

Moreover, Peres advocated a regional approach to resolving the conflict on the grounds that “it would help leaders who can make decisions even if those decisions are heavily criticized.”

The Israeli politician of 91 years of age was in opposition to the campaigns to boycott Israel and said that to alleviate this growing phenomenon new negotiations would need to “initiate without conditions.”

Luis R. Miranda is an award-winning journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief at The Real Agenda. His career spans over 18 years and almost every form of news media. His articles include subjects such as environmentalism, Agenda 21, climate change, geopolitics, globalisation, health, vaccines, food safety, corporate control of governments, immigration and banking cartels, among others. Luis has worked as a news reporter, on-air personality for Live and Live-to-tape news programs. He has also worked as a script writer, producer and co-producer on broadcast news. Read more about Luis.