{"id":649,"date":"2012-12-06T16:50:55","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T16:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2013-06-18T14:31:43","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T21:31:43","slug":"obama-and-israel-are-walking-away-from-two-state-solution-with-palestinians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/?p=649","title":{"rendered":"Obama and Israel are walking away from two-state solution with Palestinians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_650\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/1206-Maale-Adumim-settlement_full_600.jpeg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-650\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-650 \" title=\"1206-Maale-Adumim-settlement_full_600\" src=\"http:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/1206-Maale-Adumim-settlement_full_600.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"380\" height=\"253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/1206-Maale-Adumim-settlement_full_600.jpeg 380w, https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/1206-Maale-Adumim-settlement_full_600-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-650\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Jewish settler looks at the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, from the E1 area on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Dec. 5. Op-ed contributor Sandy Tolan writes: &#39;US policy in the region continues to operate under the Beltway perception that \u201cdomestic political considerations\u201d (chiefly driven by the Israeli lobby) must trump the national interest....despite the fact that within intelligence circles, Israel is increasingly seen as a strategic liability for the US.&#39;  Sebastian Scheiner\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/Barack+Obama\" target=\"_self\">Obama administration<\/a>\u2019s refusal to support the successful Palestinian bid for symbolic \u201cobserver state\u201d in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/United+Nations\" target=\"_self\">United Nations<\/a> sends a strong signal that all will be business as usual during its second term. Worse, ever too mindful of the pro-<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/Israel\" target=\"_self\">Israel<\/a> lobby in America, the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/United+States\" target=\"_self\">United States<\/a> has essentially endorsed a No State Solution between Israel and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/Palestine\" target=\"_self\">Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Official US policy has long been in support of a negotiated settlement that would produce two states, Israel and Palestine, existing side by side in peace. But during the \u201cpeace process\u201d of the last 20 years, Israel\u2019s actions have undermined that goal. Since the famous Rabin-Arafat handshake on the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/The+White+House\" target=\"_self\">White House<\/a> lawn in 1993, which marked the beginning of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/Oslo\" target=\"_self\">Oslo<\/a> process, the Israeli settler population in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/West+Bank\" target=\"_self\">West Bank<\/a> has rocketed from 109,000 to more than 350,000. One of the largest settlements, Ariel (almost 20,000) has been absorbed into \u201cgreater Israel\u201d by a separation wall that veers deep inside the West Bank; plans are in place to thus incorporate a second settlement,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/Maale+Adumim\" target=\"_self\">Maale Adumim<\/a>(39,000). \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/Commentary\/Opinion\/2012\/1206\/Obama-and-Israel-are-walking-away-from-two-state-solution-with-Palestinians-video\">Read the full piece from the <em>Christian Science Monitor&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Obama administration\u2019s refusal to support the successful Palestinian bid for symbolic \u201cobserver state\u201d in the\u00a0United Nations sends a strong signal that all will be business as usual during its second term. Worse, ever too mindful of the pro-Israel lobby in America, the\u00a0United States has essentially endorsed a No State Solution between Israel and\u00a0Palestine. Official US <a href=\"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/?p=649#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}