Israel rejected any Palestinian sovereignty after the war
The Interaction Between the U.N. Prime Minister and Prime Minister during the Oct. 7 Attack: Two-State Solutions or None?
Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu have known each other for decades, and the relationship between the left-leaning president and right-leaning prime minister has long been complicated. They fought over Mr Netanyahu and Mr Biden trying to negotiate a new nuclear agreement with Iran.
“There are a number of types of two-state solutions,” the president told reporters at the White House several hours after the call, their first in nearly a month amid tension over the war. Some of the United Nations member countries don’t have their own militaries. There are many states that have limitations. He added, “And so I think there’s ways in which this could work.”
Mr. Kirby said the two leaders also discussed hostages held by Hamas, humanitarian aid to Gaza, the release of tax payments to the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank and the shift in Israel’s military strategy to more surgical operations. But Mr. Kirby revealed no specific new agreements and confirmed that the leaders continued to disagree about the prospect of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has said Israel must fight until it achieves “complete victory” and Hamas no longer poses a threat but has not outlined how this will be accomplished.
The long gap between calls in itself was an indication of friction. In the two and a half months between the Oct. 7 attack and their pre-Christmas conversation, Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu spoke 14 times, or roughly once every five and a half days. It took 27 days to get in touch with them again.
The War Between Israel and the Middle East: A Call to Arms, Or Should We Tolerantly Forge the Breakdown of Israel?
But Mr. Kirby sought to play down the discord, characterizing their clashes as honest disagreements between friends. “We’re not going to agree on everything,” he said. We have said that. Good friends and allies can have those kinds of candid, forthright discussions and we do.”
The latter phrase, which is often used by Palestinians and their supporters, is seen as advocating the eradication of Israel because it lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The House censured Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, in November for using that phrase.
President Biden expressed optimism that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel could still consensus. There are many different types of two state solutions.
In the West Bank, mourners gathered for the funeral of a young American who was shot and killed a day earlier. The circumstances of the shooting remained unclear, and police said the incident was under investigation.
A camera man for the Associated Press says four people have died in a car wreck in Rafah. Israel’s military wasn’t immediately commenting.
The fighting has forced many families to leave their homes, many of which were reduced to rubble, said Halima Abdel-Rahman, a woman displaced from northern Gaza who now shelters in Bani Suheila on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
In the south of Gaza, Palestinians who were contacted by phone said Israeli forces were bombarding the area and fighting with Palestinian guerrillas in the north.
On Saturday, an Israeli strike on Syria’s capital destroyed a building used by the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, killing at least five Iranians, Syrian and Iranian state media reported. The National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike on a car Saturday near the port city of Tyre killed two people. It was not immediately clear who the target was.
The war in the Middle East resulted in groups attacking the U.S. and Israel. In Lebanon, the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel threatens to lead into a full-scale war, while the rebels in Yemen want to target international shipping.
Israeli Defense of the Interior Security Force: “The War on Gaza” (Israel’s Netanyahu rejects any Palestinian sovereignty post-war, rebuffing Biden)
Al-Madh al-Amni, a media outlet that is linked to the Hamas internal security force, warned the Palestinians against providing information about the Israeli soldiers.
Israel’s military dropped messages on Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah in the search for hostages. The leaflets, with photos of dozens of hostages, carried a message suggesting benefits for anyone who spoke up.
Dozens of anti-war protesters also gathered in the Israeli city of Haifa, carrying signs reading “Stop genocide” and scuffling with police who tried to confiscate the placards. One person was arrested by police.
The military doesn’t carry out attacks where it knows there are hostages or that the army can bring them home, said Rear Adm. Hagari.
At the Tel Aviv protest, former hostage Chen Goldstein-Almog told the crowd that “if we, as a society, as a state, don’t do everything, I mean everything, to return the abductees, the living and the dead, we have no right to exist, as a state and as a society.”
The father of a young man held by Hamas began a hunger strike on Friday. Eli Shtivi will not eat a lot of food until the prime minister agrees to meet with him.
“We can’t do it anymore.” We were told to be quiet and let the government do its job. Well, it’s not bringing us any result for the last two months,” said Yuval Bar On, whose father-in-law, Keith Siegel, is among the hostages.
Netanyahu has insisted that the only way to secure the hostages’ return is by crushing Hamas through military means. In exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, more than 100 hostages, mostly women and children, were released. Approximately 100 hostages are believed to be alive, but Israel has said that more than 130 remain in Gaza.
The offensive has decimated much of the territory and displaced more than 1 million people. The UN said the Israeli blockade of Gaza has led to serious shortages of food and medicine.
The Israeli War Cabinet: Netanyahu stalling so he can’t talk about the two-state solution for Israel’s problem with the Palestinians
After Netanyahu’s statement, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the United States to go further. “It is time for the United States to acknowledge the state of Palestine and not only talk about a two-state solution,” said Abu Rudeineh.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable.” He said that the refusal would prolong the conflict.
But a member of Israel’s War Cabinet, former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, called for a cease-fire in order to free hostages, a comment that implied criticism of Israel’s current strategy.
Critics have accused Netanyahu of preventing a Cabinet-level debate about a post-war scenario for Gaza. They claim he is stalling so he doesn’t have conflict within his coalition. Netanyahu’s office called the claim that he was unnecessarily prolonging the war “utter nonsense.”
