Israeli PM Lapid says he backs two-state solution with Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday said that he would support a two-state solution to decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reasserted that Israel would do "whatever it takes" to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.

His mention of a two-state solution, the first by an Israeli leader in years at the United Nations General Assembly, echoed US President Joe Biden's support in Israel in August for the long-dormant proposal.

"An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel's security, for Israel's economy and for the future of our children," Lapid said.

He added any agreement would be conditioned on a "peaceful" Palestinian state that would not threaten Israel.

Lapid spoke less than six weeks before a November 1 election that could return to power the right-wing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longstanding opponent of the two-state solution.

Israel illegally occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza - areas that Palestinians seek for an independent state - during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks began in 1991 and went on fruitlessly for decades before finally collapsing in 2014, amid constant Israeli refusals to allow the Palestinians to establish a viable state with full sovereignty or to withdraw from East Jerusalem and large swathes of the West Bank.

In his speech, Lapid again denounced Iran and voiced Israel's determination to prevent its longtime foe from gaining a nuclear weapon.

"The only way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is to put a credible military threat on the table," he said. "We have capabilities and we are not afraid to use them."

Widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear weapons, Israel regards Iran as a major threat. Tehran denies trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

Lapid's words 'mean nothing', Palestinians say

Efforts to reach a two-state Israeli-Palestinian deal have long been stalled.

Israel has entrenched its control of the occupied Palestinian territories through its military rule over millions of Palestinians and persistent settlement construction.

Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Reuters that Lapid's words "mean nothing."

"Whoever wants a two-state solution must implement it on the ground," he said, by respecting previously reached agreements, stopping settlement expansion and recognising East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides called Lapid's speech "courageous" for supporting the two-state solution.

Lapid praised efforts by Middle Eastern countries to normalise relations and cooperate with Israel. In 2020, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco signed normalisation deals with Israel which were slammed by Palestinians as a betrayal of their cause.

He urged Muslim countries, from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia, to make peace with it.

(Reuters and The New Arab Staff)