When America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) CEO Howard Kohr, addressing AIPAC’s Policy Conference this past week, called for establishing a Palestinian Arab state, he inadvertently exposed a decades-old myth: that AIPAC only supports all policies of the Israeli government.
Kohr unequivocally stated: “We must all work toward that future: two states for two peoples … One Jewish with secure and defensible borders, and one Palestinian with its own flag and its own future.”
This is the policy of neither the Trump administration nor Israel.
President Trump has repeatedly stated that he supports any agreement that commends itself to both sides. Indeed, at this very AIPAC conference, neither Vice President Mike Pence’s speech nor Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley’s speech made any call for Palestinian statehood.
As for Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been clear that, under prevailing conditions, neither he nor his government are contemplating a Palestinian state. Furthermore, only two months ago, the internal committee of Likud, Israel’s ruling party, voted in favor or applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and eastern Jerusalem.
The Israeli public is no less at odds with Mr. Kohr: a January 2017 Maagar Mochot poll found that an overwhelming majority of 75% of Israelis support Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, while a March 2017 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs poll showed that 57% of Israelis oppose Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. READ MORE
