Kerry angers Israel with talk of binational state

Secretary of State John Kerry caused consternation in Israel when he said the nation threatens to implode if a two-state solution is not reached with Palestinians, drawing the ire of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Israel will not be a binational state,” Netanyahu said emphatically at the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, according to the Times of Israel.

Kerry warned Israel that the collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA) threatens to destabilize the nation.

“If there is a risk that the PA could collapse — and it is in Israel’s interest for it to in fact survive, as the prime minister suggested — should more therefore not be done to sustain it?” Kerry said in a Saturday speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., on Saturday.

“The one-state solution is no solution at all for a secure, Jewish, democratic Israel living in peace. It is simply not a viable option,” he added.Netanyahu said the PA has been inciting violence in Israel over a sensitive holy site that is sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

He said a two-state solution is possible only if both sides want peace.“But in order for there to be peace, the other side must decide that they also want peace, and unfortunately that is not what we are seeing,” he said on Sunday.Near-daily attacks in Israel began in September and have shown no signs of relenting.Later on Sunday, a 21-year-old Palestinian man intentionally crashed his car into two young people walking on the sidewalk, injuring them lightly. He exited his vehicle and stabbed one officer before he was apprehended.

 

Read More: Kerry angers Israel with talk of binational state | TheHill