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Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke in his speech at the UN General Assembly on a burning issue: the creation of two states for Israel and Palestine. This solution had already been proposed some time ago in the UN and is reminiscent of the unsuccessful Oslo Agreements of 1993.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, raised a highly controversial issue in Israel: the creation of two states; one from Israel, one from Palestine. The politician presented this option as a solution to decades of conflict between the two peoples in the world’s largest diplomatic event.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, he said that “despite all obstacles, still today a large majority of Israelis support the vision of the two-state solution,” adding that he is “one of the them. We only have one condition: that the future Palestinian state be peaceful,” he said.
Lapid assured that working on that path “is the right thing to do for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future” of future Israeli generations.
This is the first speech to the UN in many years by an Israeli leader going in that direction. A message that comes shortly after US President Joe Biden stated that “the best way to achieve” a lasting peace is “the two-state solution”, during his July visit to Israel.
The United States, Israel’s traditional ally, said through its ambassador Tom Nides that Lapid’s speech was “courageous” for trying to get out of the conflict.
Reactions to Lapid’s words in Palestine and Israel
However, the statements come at a time of political crisis in Israel, since the governing coalitions have broken down and the elections on November 1 will be the fifth in four years.
The elections could return power to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was quick to reject a proposal made today at the UN:
“Lapid is pushing the Palestinians back to the forefront of the world stage and putting Israel right in the Palestinian trap,” emphasizing “we will not allow Lapid to establish a Palestinian state and return us to the Oslo disaster,” referring to the Oslo Accords of 1953.
Far-right politicians also attacked Lapid’s words, such as Betzalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism, who stated that allowing the two states would be “a shameful surrender to terrorism and an attempt to divide the country, give away territories and expel thousands of Jews from their homes.
Although this proposal by the prime minister is supported by some more liberal sectors, right-wing voters, who represent the majority in Israel, approve the expansion of Jewish settlements and reject the creation of a Palestinian state.
From Palestine there were also reactions to Lapid’s statements. A senior official of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, PLO, Wasel Abu Youssef, said that the president’s words “mean nothing” and added that “whoever wants a two-state solution must apply it on the ground”, which means that Israel should stop the expansion of settlements and recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state.
The Oslo Accords of 1993
These agreements were a series of pacts reached between then PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Isaac Rabin.
Talks to reach the pact began clandestinely in Norway in 1992 and the agreements were signed on the White House lawn in 1993, when Bill Clinton was president.
Currently, both parties criticize the agreement: the Israelis blame Rabin for having given an international presence to Palestine, while neglecting the fight against Hamas terrorism. And they point out that after the agreements there was an escalation of violence with suicide attacks in different parts of Israel.
For their part, the Palestinians believe that what was signed in Oslo allowed Israeli settlers to expand in their territories and they blame the Jewish extremist who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin for burying a process that found many difficulties in prospering.
With Reuters and EFE
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