JERUSALEM – Vice President Harris’ support for a Palestinian state before and during her debate with former President Trump would lead to further instability in the Middle East and fuel additional terrorism, according to Israeli and American experts.
During Tuesday’s presidential debate on ABC, the Democratic presidential nominee reiterated her support for a two-state solution: “I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, particularly as it relates to Iran and any threat posed to Israel by Iran and its allies. But we must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza, where Palestinians have the security, self-determination and the dignity that they deserve.”
The two-state solution means there would be an independent Palestinian state on Israel’s borders, including the West Bank region (known in Israel by the biblical name Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip. Biden faced strong criticism for this in February Ignoring the scourge of Palestinian terrorism There have been calls for action against Israeli troops in Judea and Samaria, while restrictions have been imposed on Israeli settlers in the region.
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Vice President Harris speaks during the presidential debate in Philadelphia on September 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
David Friedman, Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, told Fox News Digital, “After October 7, the two-state concept became a dead letter. A Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan would destabilize both countries and only bring additional terror and misery.”
“Vice President Harris should stop repeating failed theories and trying to force a square peg into a round hole. She should empower Israel to reach a just and workable solution on its own and not intervene in matters where she is neither competent nor well informed,” said Friedman, who wrote the new book “One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”
In early September, Friedman took aim at Biden Fox News’s “Your World”“To create rifts in Israeli society.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Vice President Harris at the White House on July 25, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu/via Getty Images)
Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who served for 24 years as a combat commander and spokesman in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told Fox News Digital, “The so-called two-state solution may have been possible to implement 31 years ago, but the Palestinians’ four consecutive rejections of Israel’s peace proposals have made it clear that the current Palestinian leadership does not aspire to end the conflict and achieve peace. Palestinian rejectionism has also eroded political support for the peace process in Israel, as it has become abundantly clear that the Palestinian leadership does not want peace.”
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This photo shows the remains of a house in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel. (Coby Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)
According to Conricus, “Surveys of the Palestinian population in Gaza and Palestinian Authority-controlled areas reveal clear popular Palestinian support for Hamas, indicating that the Palestinian population supports a genocidal view of destroying Israel through jihad.” Demonstration by Hamas on 7 OctoberGlobal leaders must listen to both sides of the conflict to understand how the situation has changed and pursue diplomatic solutions in accordance with current possibilities. And whatever the outcome of the war waged by Hamas against Israel on October 7, granting Hamas statehood would be disastrous for regional stability and peace and for American global prestige. Terror must not be granted statehood.”
A Palestinian man places the national flag on top of a poster of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Nablus on September 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohamed)
Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state and Democratic strategist, told Fox News Digital, “The two-state solution is on life support right now, but just because it’s hard to imagine a peaceful end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians at this point that’s based on diplomatic compromise doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be the goal. After all, Israel fought several existential wars with Egypt and then, just a few years after the Yom Kippur War, signed a peace agreement that has given Israel deep security along its southern border for more than four decades. That’s what the two-state solution is all about: ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in a way that provides long-term stability and security.”
A Hamas terrorist takes part in a military parade. (Reuters/Ibrahim Abu Mustafa/File)
Rubin, who has long worked with the Jewish community, said, “We’ve seen this accomplished with Arab countries. There’s no reason it can’t be accomplished with the Palestinians, as long as there’s political will, extremism is rooted out and the security system is solid. So, for Vice President Harris to make this a priority is a natural pro-Israel stance, to want to provide Israel with the long-term security and stability that it clearly still doesn’t have.”
In late August, Harris reiterated her support for a Palestinian state in an interview with CNN. “I have been committed since October 8 to working toward a two-state solution where Israel is secure and Palestinians have security, self-determination, and dignity,” she said.
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The Harris campaign did not respond to multiple press questions from Fox News Digital.
Harris and Biden have provided significant funding for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is led by Mahmoud Abbas. The PA president is seen by some as a moderate compared to the Iranian regime-backed Hamas leadership. However, Abbas supports stipends for convicted Palestinian terrorists and their families in connection with the infamous “pay for slay” system, which could mean a reelection PA pays compensation to Hamas terrorists,
This image shows a funeral procession of Palestinian terrorists in Jenin, occupied West Bank, on July 5, 2023. (Jafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Several recently released convicted Palestinian terrorists were part of a swap that secured the release of some Israeli and foreign hostages held by the terrorist movement Hamas, Fox News Digital reported in November. Can receive US funds through PA,
“US and European funding adds $600 million to the Palestinian Authority’s budget. The Palestinian Authority pays salaries to family members of imprisoned terrorists and martyrs, and this amounts to $300 million annually,” Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli organization that researches Palestinian society, told Fox News Digital at the time.
Last month, Abbas told the Turkish parliament, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, that “America is the plagueAnd the plague is America” and “We apply Sharia law: victory or martyrdom.”
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Abbas, 88, who has remained in power since taking over as PA president in 2008, has been embroiled in anti-Semitism and Holocaust-distortion scandals over the past several years.
In 2022, Fox News Digital reported that Abbas had a scathing attack against Israel, in Berlin, where the Holocaust – the mass destruction of European Jews – was staged, claims the Jewish state carried out “50 massacres”.
