Carter: Zero Chance for Two-state Solution

[Little Tich]

Source: Haaretz

Netanyahu decided 'early on to adopt a one-state solution, but without giving the Palestinians equal rights,' former U.S. president accuses in interview.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said there is no chance of seeing the two-state solution realized "at this moment," accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing a one-state solution without equal rights for Palestinians.

“At this moment, there is zero chance of the two-state solution,” Carter, 90, told Prospect Magazine, in an interview published on Thursday.

Carter added that after the failure of the last negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in 2014, brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry, the U.S. "has withdrawn" from the issue.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.671056

Link to original interview in Prospect Magazine: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/jimmy-carter-there-is-zero-chance-for-the-two-state-solution

[oberliner]

1. ...at this moment

Hopefully circumstances will change and the moment will arrive in the not too distant future.

President Carter devoted much of his life to trying to bring about a two-state solution; hopefully that work will not have been in vain.

[Little Tich]

3. Perhaps, the best thing would be to implement the one-state solution for now, and later, when Hell

freezeth over, the two-state solution could be attempted. The current situation can't remain as it is for both moral and practical reasons.

[oberliner]

4. There is no such solution

It's just a fantasy of the far right among Israelis and Palestinians who do not want to recognize the legitimacy of their counterparts.

The Geneva Accord (promoted heavily by President Carter) is the only reasonable way forward. It's time for everyone to get on board and push for its implementation.

Jimmy Carter calls on Israel and the PA to adopt the Geneva Accord as a "bible"

Carter said Israelis and Palestinians should adopt an unofficial framework for a peace agreement known as the "Geneva Accord," drafted by dovish Israelis and Palestinians in 2003 without government authorization. That agreement endorsed the formation of a Palestinian state on almost all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

The sides should "adopt the Geneva Accords as Bible, Holy Scripture, so that all can speak with a common voice," Carter said.

http://www.geneva-accord.org/mainmenu/jimmy-carter-calls-on-israel-and-the-pa-to-adopt-the-geneva-accord-as-a-bible\

Folks in the region need to heed those wise words or face perpetual conflict and enmity.

[Little Tich]

6. The Geneva Accord is a scam.

The swaps aren't equal in any way. For the land land that Israel offers, an equal swap would be some uninhabited hills in the Negev, not prime lands in and around Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the settlements are spreading, and the maps of the Geneva Accord have to be adjusted so that more low value Israeli land is exchanged for prime Palestinian land.

Perhaps, instead of any stupid land swaps, Israel could respect the future rulings of the ICC. If the settlements are legal as Israel always has insisted, there's no reason to evacuate a single one. If the settlements are deemed illegal, however, no land swaps will be needed. Any settlements that were to remain then would only be rewarding war crimes.

Frankly though, that is way too far in the future to solve the problem that must be solved ASAP. If the two-state solution isn't implemented now, it will never happen.

[geek tragedy]

7. What is irreversible cannot become reversible.

Maybe a quarter of the people who back a two state solution actually believe it can happen.

The only question is how long Israel's apartheid era lasts before it's replaced by a binational state that's as much Muslim as it is Jewish.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. As long as Netanyahu is in office,

I don't really see how there can be an acceptable solution. He doesn't want two states and he doesn't want equal rights for Palestinians. What else would be acceptable?

[6chars]

5. perhaps he thinks about it differently than you realize

He (and many Israelis) probably does not want 2 states if the Palestinian state is likely to end up with Hamas running it the way it runs Gaza, or if it is going to become a base for ISIS or for Iranian hobbies like Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Israel's northern border. He would probably be ok with 2 states if the Palestinian state was likely to be a peaceful neighbor. That is, what motivates him is security, not land acquisition. The standard thinking seems to be that if enough pressure is put on Israel, it will be willing to accept less security such as having the prospect of an Iranian backed Hamas state abutting its centers of population. It seems to me that whatever pressure is put on Israel, it would have more effect if at the same time efforts were made to decrease the risk that a Palestinian state would be a base for hostilities against Israel. Even if trying to reduce that risk is seen as unfair to the Palestinians since they are the ones currently without a state, imo it improves the chances that they will have a state, higher standard of living and so on. In exchange, though, they would have to give up their dreams of removing Israel. This is a third way, but it's not pc.

[shira]

8. Jimmy Carter claimed Hamas Leader is committed to peace

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134102650#post1