Blinken: The 'only way' for Israel's security is a Palestinian state
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he had discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu potential "humanitarian pauses" in the war in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Israel will only gain security through the creation of a Palestinian state.
"Two states for two peoples. Again, that is the only way to ensure lasting security for a Jewish and democratic Israel," Blinken said after meeting Israeli leaders on Friday.
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"That's the only guarantor of a secure, Jewish, and democratic Israel; the only guarantor of Palestinians realizing their legitimate right to live in a state of their own, enjoying equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity; the only way to end a cycle of violence once and for all," Blinken said in Tel Aviv.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he had discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu potential "humanitarian pauses" in the war in Gaza.
"Best viable path"
Blinken said the pauses would let in assistance and said that longer-term a two-state solution was "the best viable path -- indeed, the only path."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv on 3 November 2023, during his visit to Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
"We believe that each of these efforts (to protect Palestinian civilians and increase aid into Gaza) would be facilitated by humanitarian pauses, by arrangements on the ground that increase security for civilians and permit the more effective and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance," Blinken told journalists.
US President Joe Biden and Blinken, while publicly backing Israel's right to respond to Hamas, have pressed Israel to hand over tax revenue it collects for the Palestinian Authority and to crack down on attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
One of the key focus of Blinken's latest Israel visit was to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enact the "humanitarian pauses", which the United States believes could help secure the release of roughly 240 hostages thought to be in Hamas captivity and to allow aid to be distributed to Gaza's beleaguered population.
Netanyahu said later, however, that he would not agree to a "temporary truce" with Hamas until the Islamist group released the hostages.
Story by AFP
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