The Biden administration is considering recognizing Palestinian statehood, two US officials said, according to a report published on Wednesday.
After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Washington has once again stated that the only way forward would be a two-state solution.
Countries in the Middle East have also said Palestinian statehood would be a prerequisite for establishing diplomatic ties with Israel. The current Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has vehemently rejected calls for giving Palestinians a state.
“Efforts to find a diplomatic way out of the war in Gaza has opened the door for rethinking a lot of old US paradigms and policies,” according to a senior US official who spoke to Axios.
Axios also cited the senior US official as saying that some officials in the Biden administration believe that recognizing Palestine might need to be the first step in negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The State Department said it was “actively pursuing” the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with real security guarantees for Israel.
“There are any number of ways that you could go about accomplishing that. There are a number of sequencing of events that you can carry out to accomplish that objective,” State Department Spokesman Matt Miller told reporters during a briefing.
When asked about the Axios report, a National Security Council spokesperson told Al Arabiya English: “It has been longstanding US policy that any recognition of a Palestinian state must come through direct negotiations between the parties rather than through unilateral recognition at the UN. That policy has not changed.”
The report comes just days after British Foreign Secretary David Cameron suggested the UK could soon recognize a Palestinian state.
Also according to JNS, Democrats in both chambers of the U.S. Congress have expressed support for a Palestinian state in recent days, despite Israeli opposition to the move as a threat to its security.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) led 48 Democratic senators and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday in announcing plans to introduce a two-page amendment to the national security supplemental package affirming that U.S. policy is to support a two-state solution.
Two Democrats in the 100-member chamber did not sign on to the measure—Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).
A spokesperson for Fetterman told Axios that while the former progressive and current pro-Israel moderate supports a two-state solution, he “also strongly believes that this resolution should include language stipulating the destruction of Hamas as a precondition to peace.”
On the other side of the Capitol, 44 House Democrats signed a letter sent to President Joe Biden on Tuesday calling for a “two-state solution as the only viable path for a sustainable peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people.”
The letter, led by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.), also criticizes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks rejecting Palestinian statehood.
Netanyahu said in a televised address on Jan. 18 that “Gaza must be demilitarized, under Israel’s full security control,” adding, “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control of all territory west of the Jordan River.”
His comments drew a backlash from the Biden administration, Democratic members of Congress, the European Union, and the United Nations.
Earlier this week, the Republican Jewish Coalition slammed the Biden administration for its “growing pressure” on Israel to support the creation of a Palestinian state.
“Today, Israel is at war against the monstrous terrorists who perpetrated the October 7 atrocities, dozens of Israelis remain captives of Hamas, and no Palestinian faction has condemned the horror that led to the current crisis,” stated Norm Coleman and Matt Brooks, national chairman and CEO respectively of the RJC.
“Until those objectives are accomplished, pressuring the Jewish state to make irreversible and potentially perilous long-term diplomatic commitments is a grave failure to live up to America’s proud history of standing with Israel against its deadly enemies,” said the RJC heads.
“Let’s be clear: As long as the Palestinian Authority is still rewarding terrorist murderers through its massive ‘pay-for-slay’ subsidies and refusing to condemn the October 7 atrocities, it remains unfit to administer a Palestinian state,” the two men added.
