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Veteran Israeli Diplomat: "The Palestinian Issue Cannot Be Solved in the Near Future"

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - Zalman Shoval, 93, has had political contact with every Israeli leader from David Ben-Gurion to Benjamin Netanyahu. The former two-time ambassador to the U.S. said in an interview, "If you take a realistic, historical look at the situation [with the Palestinians], there is no avoiding the conclusion that there is no possibility for a relatively quick solution, because the actual conflict is not about the border being here or there, or the settlements being here or there, or even about the settlements at all." "It is about the basic refusal of the Palestinian Arabs, the Palestinian national movement - which is a relatively recent one - to recognize the right of the Jewish people to a national state of their own. And that hasn't changed." Shoval recalled that U.S. President Joe Biden said in May 2021: "Until the region says, unequivocally, they acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as an independent Jewish state, there will be no peace." "I hope he still remembers that. That comment is significant and correct." "The Palestinian issue cannot be solved in the near future. Any stopgap attempt to create something artificially as a consequence of the war in Gaza today will bring negative results. But this is not the way that Washington today seems to be looking at it, which is not helpful." Regarding the future, Shoval said that he is worried "about the Western world in general, of which Israel must remain an integral part....I am concerned about the ability of the West to keep its stance against the enemies of the West - and these are ideological enemies. This is an ideological contest."
2024-03-17 00:00:00
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