Washington’s seeming abandonment of two-state solution fuels worry amid Israeli attacks

Middle East officials and analysts have condemned recent remarks by the United States’ ambassador to Israel, who said he did not think creating a Palestinian state remains Washington’s foreign policy goal.

Mike Huckabee, an avowed Christian Zionist who has openly rejected Palestinian existence, was responding to a question in a Bloomberg interview on June 10.

Bloomberg quoted him as saying in off-camera remarks, “I don’t think so,” when asked whether the US administration supported a two-state solution as ongoing American policy.

“Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee was quoted as saying.

In a separate interview with the BBC, he even suggested that any future Palestinian entity could be carved out of a Muslim country rather than in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

For decades, the US has long supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would give Palestinians sovereignty in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The US helped broker the Oslo Accords in 1993, which were widely expected to lead to statehood for the Palestinians, and, for Israel, a realization of the long-held goal of land for peace.

Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg, assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation of the Gulf Cooperation Council, said the ambassador “has made some really outrageous comments”.

Dylan Williams, vice-president for government affairs at the nonprofit Center for International Policy in Washington, described Huckabee’s comments as “deeply bigoted”.

“The abandonment of longstanding US policy creates an opening — and a need — for France and others to finally recognize Palestinian statehood,” Williams wrote on X.

France and Saudi Arabia are set to co-chair a high-level conference in New York next week aimed at advancing the two-state solution, including the recognition of Palestinian territories.

France has been rallying European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, to recognize Palestine ahead of the meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on June 6 that recognizing a Palestinian state, with conditions, is “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity”.

In a related move, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the UK have imposed sanctions on two sitting Israeli Cabinet ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

But the actions were slammed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said such moves “do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war”.

The comments by Rubio and Huckabee came as the United Nations said in a report on June10 that Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed more than half of its religious and cultural sites.

In addition, Israeli forces “have committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination”.

Belal Alakhras, a political analyst and researcher at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, told China Daily that the US’ role “has been particularly telling”, citing its repeated use of veto power on Palestinian matters, including the bid for UN membership.

These actions are more than procedural; they send a clear signal that even symbolic recognition of Palestinian statehood is unacceptable to Washington, Alakhras said.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said in a report on Gaza, and also focused on attacks in the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole, that Israel has used airstrikes, shelling, burning and controlled demolitions to damage and destroy more than 90 percent of school and university buildings in Gaza, creating conditions where education for children, and the livelihood of teachers are impossible.

“Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians …,” the report said.

“We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, the commission’s chair.

The report will be presented to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on June 17.

AFP contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at jan@chinadailyapac.com