Friday, September 24, 2021

Progressive Dems introduce bill they say aims at keeping 2-state solution alive

A group of progressive, pro-Israel Democrats introduced a comprehensive piece of legislation on Thursday aimed at keeping alive the dimming prospects for a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

The Two-State Solution Act introduced by Rep. Andy Levin with over a dozen co-sponsors aims “to preserve conditions for, and improve the likelihood of, a two-state solution that secures Israel’s future as a democratic state and a national home for the Jewish people, a viable, democratic Palestinian state.”

However, it faces an uphill battle to become law. The bill is strongly opposed by more moderate Democrats, who say it demands nothing of the Palestinians.

If passed, the bill orders the US government to take a series of steps aimed at limiting Israeli entrenchment in the West Bank.

The bill bars US defense aid from use in acts by Israel to expand its control beyond the Green Line, through moves such as settlement building, demolitions of Palestinian homes, or evictions of Palestinian residents. It also mandates strict oversight of how Israel spends defense assistance more broadly.

The legislation says the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are all occupied territories and should be referred to as such in all official US policies, documents and communications.

Israel captured those areas in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed East Jerusalem. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, handing over control to the Palestinian Authority, which was ousted in 2007 from the coastal enclave in a bloody coup by the Hamas terror group that still rules the Strip.

Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital. Former US president Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and shifted the US embassy there from Tel Aviv.

The centrist Democratic Majority for Israel group quickly announced its opposition to the new bill, which it called “counterproductive, one-sided, and bad policy.” It added: “The bill wrongly blames Israel alone for the failure to achieve a two-state solution. The reality is that Israel has offered Palestinians — and Palestinian leaders have refused — a state of their own on several occasions.” READ MORE