Two-state solution is not a solution to end Jewish-Arab conflict

The international community jetted off on a fool’s errand to Norway on January 15th for the third meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State solution (Global Alliance)--created in September last year on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The Global Alliance is co-hosted by European Union High Representative Josep Borrell, Norway and the Ministerial Arab League/Organization of Islamic Cooperation Contact Group on Gaza--and presided over by Prince Faisal--the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia.

90 of the 193 United Nations member states attended the initial Global Alliance meeting deciding to advance among other objectives:

“an irreversible path of joint efforts and concrete measures in support of and enabling and implementing the Two-State Solution with a clear timeline.”

Their meetings would focus on:

“United Nations Security Council resolutions and related peace efforts, all within the framework of the Two-State Solution … A core element of these efforts is the establishment of a Palestinian State, living side by side in peace and security with Israel”

The third meeting in Oslo was a useless exercise for one reason: Israel will not agree to the creation of such a State in addition to Jordan--which already occupies 78% of former Palestine located east of the Jordan River.

The Knesset--Israel’s Parliament--overwhelmingly rejected the establishment of such a State west of the Jordan River on July 18, 2024 by 68 votes to 9--declaring:

“The establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel would pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens”

The right of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in the 22% of former Palestine located west of the Jordan River had been granted by articles 6 and 25 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine--preserved until today by article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

The Global Alliance was bashing its collective head against a brick wall when the Chairman--Norway’s Foreign Minister Espin Barth Eide:

“stressed the importance of the Palestinian government assuming responsibility in Gaza and recalled that United Nations Security Council Resolution 2735 stressed the importance of reunifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

Resolution 2735 had been drafted by the Biden-Harris administration and adopted by the Security Council on June 10, 2024--a cosy and collusive solution that is dead in the water.

The Global Alliance needs to look at a revolutionary solution to end the Jewish-Arab conflict--the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS)--authored by Ali Shihabi--an advisor to Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman--and published in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News on June 8, 2022.

HKOPS calls for:

• Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to be merged into one new territorial entity--“The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine” – to be governed by Jordan--not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority

• Can be expeditiously implemented by redrawing the existing international border between Jordan and Israel

For reasons unexplained HKOPS has never been mentioned once in the UN General Assembly or Security Council since its publication in 2022.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Tor Wennesland--Guterres’ personal choice as his new Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process and Personal Representative to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian Authority--are hopelessly conflicted in failing to mention HKOPS once in their mandated reports.

The Global Alliance--in pushing for the failed two-state solution--first proposed in 1937--is on an irreversible path to nowhere.

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively by the author — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades