U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday acknowledged "overwhelming frustration" with the Israeli government and said the systemic expansion of Jewish settlements was moving Israel toward a dangerous "one-state reality" and in the wrong direction.
People carry a giant Israeli national flag during the 51st annual
Israel parade in Manhattan, New York May 31, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington,
March 2, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during an event to bring awareness
to sexual assault on college campuses in Las Vegas, Nevada April 7,
2016. REUTERS/David Becker
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington,
March 2, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
WASHINGTON: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday
acknowledged "overwhelming frustration" with the Israeli government and
said the systemic expansion of Jewish settlements was moving Israel
toward a dangerous "one-state reality" and in the wrong direction.
Addressing the J Street lobby group in Washington, Biden
said despite disagreements with Israel over settlements or the Iran
nuclear deal, the United States had an obligation to push Israel toward a
two-state solution to end the conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians.
"We have an overwhelming obligation, notwithstanding our
sometimes overwhelming frustration with the Israeli government, to push
them as hard as we can toward what they know in their gut is the only
ultimate solution, a two-state solution, while at the same time be an
absolute guarantor of their security," Biden said.
A two-state solution envisages a Palestinian state on most
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in a 1967 war,
and an Israeli state that absorbs some of the settlements Israel built
on occupied land in return for mutually agreed land swaps.
Biden said his recent meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas left him discouraged
over the prospects for peace at present.
"There is at the moment no political will that I observed
among Israelis or Palestinians to move forward with serious
negotiations," Biden said, "The trust that is necessary to take risks
for peace is fractured on both sides."
He said both Palestinians and Israelis needed to tamp down
rhetoric that fuelled violence and actions that undermined confidence in
negotiations.
Efforts by the Palestinian Authority to join the international
criminal court were "only damaging moves that take us further from the
path to peace," he said.For Israel's part, Biden said the "steady, systematic expansion" of Jewish settlements on occupied land wanted by the Palestinians moved "Israel in the wrong direction."
"They are moving toward a one-state reality and that reality
is dangerous," Biden said, warning that moving in that direction would
mean an endless cycle of conflict and retribution.
Biden condemned the bombing of a bus and attack on another
in Jerusalem on Monday by "misguided cowards" and offered prayers to the
injured and their families.
(This version of the story was corrects paragraph 5 to show Netanyahu is Israel's prime minister, not president)
(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
- Reuters
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