US still wants two-state solution despite Israel’s opposition, State Department says

The United States is still working to get Israel to embrace a two-state solution despite the personal opposition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and much of his far-right coalition government, the State Department said on Tuesday.

Spokesman Vedant Patel reiterated the US’s position at the agency’s daily press briefing and pushed back on assertions that such conversations had taken a back seat amid the US’s support for Israel’s military assault on Gaza.

“It’s something we remain deeply focused on,” Patel told reporters, stating that a two-state solution remains “a goal of the secretary’s, and a goal of the president’s.”

Patel went on to say that Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to the region ahead of October 7 had been centered around the idea of furthering the normalization of relations between Israel and nearby Arab nations. Patel explained that the Biden administration had hoped that normalization would be “coupled” with the achievement of a two-state solution resulting in the formation of a recognised Palestinian state and “serious progress for the Palestinian people”.

“Obviously, the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas on the Israeli people derailed some of those efforts in the immediate term,” he added. “But that is something we continue to remain focused on.”

Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have shown no signs of embracing such a political solution to the conflict, instead showing overt hostility to the idea. Just days ago, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations mockingly shredded a copy of the United Nations charter before a gathering of the General Assembly as the body considered a vote on full membership for the Palestinian people.

Netanyahu himself directly rejected the idea of a