What to expect, and what not to, at the UN meeting on an Israel-Palestinian two-state solution
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What to expect and what not to at UN meeting on Israel-Palestine two-state solution
The U.N. General Assembly is bringing high-level officials together this week to promote a two-state solution. Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the meeting, which starts Monday. France and Saudi Arabia want the meeting to put a spotlight on the two- state solution. The meeting was postponed from late June and downgraded from a four-day meeting of world leaders amid surging tensions in the Middle East, including Israel’s 12-day war against Iran and the war in Gaza. The U.S. has called the meeting “counterproductive” to its efforts to end the Gaza war, and Israel’s right-wing government opposes the idea of one-state peace. The idea of dividing the Holy Land goes back decades, and has been the basis of peace talks dating back to the 1990s. It would leave Israel as a democratic country with a solid Jewish majority and grant the Palestinians their dream of self-determination, Israel’s prime minister says. The West Bank, east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza are divided equally between Jews and Palestinians.
Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting, which starts Monday and will be co-chaired by the foreign ministers of France and Saudi Arabia. Israel’s right-wing government opposes a two-state solution, and the United States has called the meeting “counterproductive” to its efforts to end the war in Gaza. France and Saudi Arabia want the meeting to put a spotlight on the two-state solution, which they view as the only viable road map to peace, and to start addressing the steps to get there.
The meeting was postponed from late June and downgraded from a four-day meeting of world leaders amid surging tensions in the Middle East, including Israel’s 12-day war against Iran and the war in Gaza.
“It was absolutely necessary to restart a political process, the two-state solution process, that is today threatened, more threatened than it has ever been,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Here’s what’s useful to know about the upcoming gathering.
Why a two-state solution?
The idea of dividing the Holy Land goes back decades.
When the British mandate over Palestine ended, the U.N. partition plan in 1947 envisioned dividing the territory into Jewish and Arab states. Israel accepted the plan, but upon Israel’s declaration of independence the following year, its Arab neighbors declared war and the plan was never implemented. Under a 1949 armistice, Jordan held control over the West Bank and east Jerusalem and Egypt over Gaza.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those lands for a future independent state alongside Israel, and this idea of a two-state solution based on Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries has been the basis of peace talks dating back to the 1990s.
The two-state solution has wide international support. The logic behind it is that the populations of Israel, east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza are divided equally between Jews and Palestinians.
The establishment of an independent Palestine would leave Israel as a democratic country with a solid Jewish majority and grant the Palestinians their dream of self-determination.
Why hold a conference now?
France and Saudi Arabia have said they want to put a spotlight on the two-state solution as the only viable path to peace in the Middle East — and they want to see a road map with specific steps, first ending the war in Gaza.
The co-chairs said in a document sent to U.N. members in May that the primary goal of the meeting is to identify actions by “all relevant actors” to implement the two-state solution — and “to urgently mobilize the necessary efforts and resources to achieve this aim, through concrete and time-bound commitments.”
Saudi diplomat Manal Radwan, who led the country’s delegation to the preparatory conference, said the meeting must “chart a course for action, not reflection.” It must be “anchored in a credible and irreversible political plan that addresses the root cause of the conflict and offers a real path to peace, dignity and mutual security,” she said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has pushed for a broader movement toward a two-state solution in parallel with a recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself. He announced late Thursday that France will recognize the state of Palestine officially at the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in late September.
About 145 countries have recognized the state of Palestine. But Macron’s announcement, ahead of Monday’s meeting and amid increasing global anger over desperately hungry people in Gaza starting to die from starvation, makes France the most important Western power to do so.
What is Israel’s view?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the two-state solution on both nationalistic and security grounds.
Netanyahu’s religious and nationalist base views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people, while Israeli Jews overwhelmingly consider Jerusalem their eternal capital. The city’s eastern side is home to Judaism’s holiest site, along with major Christian and Muslim holy places.
Hard-line Israelis like Netanyahu believe the Palestinians don’t want peace, citing the second Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s, and more recently the Hamas takeover of Gaza two years after Israel withdrew from the territory in 2005. The Hamas takeover led to five wars, including the current and ongoing 21-month conflict.
At the same time, Israel also opposes a one-state solution in which Jews could lose their majority. Netanyahu’s preference seems to be the status quo, where Israel maintains overall control and Israelis have fuller rights than Palestinians, Israel deepens its control by expanding settlements, and the Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in pockets of the West Bank.
Netanyahu condemned Macron’s announcement of Palestinian recognition, saying it “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.”
What is the Palestinian view?
The Palestinians, who label the current arrangement “apartheid,” accuse Israel of undermining repeated peace initiatives by deepening settlement construction in the West Bank and threatening annexation. That would harm the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state and their prospects for independence.
Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and close associate of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the meeting will serve as preparation for a presidential summit expected in September. It will take place either in France or at the U.N. on the sidelines of the high-level meeting, U.N. diplomats said.
Majdalani said the Palestinians have several goals, first a “serious international political process leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
The Palestinians also want additional international recognition of their state by major countries including Britain. But expect that to happen in September, not at Monday’s meeting, Majdalani said. And he said they want economic and financial support for the Palestinian Authority and international support for the reconstruction and recovery of the Gaza Strip.
What will happen — and won’t happen — at the meeting?
All 193 U.N. member nations have been invited to attend the meeting and a French diplomat said about 40 ministers are expected. The United States and Israel are the only countries who are boycotting.
The co-chairs have circulated an outcome document which could be adopted, and there could be some announcements of intentions to recognize a Palestinian state. But with Israel and the United States boycotting, there is no prospect of a breakthrough and the resumption of long-stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on an end to their conflict.
Secretary-General António Guterres urged participants after the meeting was announced “to keep the two-state solution alive.” And he said the international community must not only support a solution where independent states of Palestine and Israel live side-by-side in peace but “materialize the conditions to make it happen.”
UN gathers to advance two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict
The conference on fostering Israeli and Palestinian states living peacefully side-by-side is to be co-chaired by Paris and Riyadh. Neither Israel nor the US are expected to attend. The meeting comes just days after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognise the State of Palestine. At least 142 of the 193 UN member states – including France – now recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988. But after more than 21 months of war in Gaza, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, it is feared a Palestinian state could be geographically impossible. The two-state solution is “more threatened than it has ever been (but) even more necessary than before,” said a French diplomatic source. The conference will have three other focuses – reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and normalisation of relations with Israel by Arab states that have not yet done so.
The conference on fostering Israeli and Palestinian states living peacefully side-by-side is to be co-chaired by Paris and Riyadh.
Originally scheduled for June, it was postponed due to security and logistical issues during the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran.
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The meeting comes just days after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognise the State of Palestine in September.
His declaration “will breathe new life into a conference that seemed destined to irrelevance,” said Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“Macron’s announcement changes the game. Other participants will be scrabbling to decide if they should also declare an intent to recognise Palestine.”
France defends move to recognise Palestinian state
According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states – including France – now recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988.
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In 1947, a resolution of the UN General Assembly decided on the partition of Palestine, then under a British mandate, into two independent states – one Jewish and the other Arab.
The following year, the State of Israel was proclaimed, and for several decades, the vast majority of UN member states have supported the idea of a two-state solution: Israeli and Palestinian, living side-by-side peacefully and securely.
But after more than 21 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and senior Israeli officials declaring designs to annex occupied territory, it is feared a Palestinian state could be geographically impossible.
The war in Gaza started following a deadly attack on 7 October 2023 by Hamas on Israel, which responded with a large-scale military response that has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.
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The New York conference is a response to the crisis, with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and several dozen ministers from around the world expected to attend.
What is the two-state solution?
‘No alternative’
The meeting comes as a two-state solution is “more threatened than it has ever been (but) even more necessary than before, because we see very clearly that there is no alternative,” said a French diplomatic source.
Beyond facilitating conditions for recognition of a Palestinian state, the meeting will have three other focuses – reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalisation of relations with Israel by Arab states that have not yet done so.
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The diplomatic source warned that no announcement of new normalisation deals was expected during the conference.
On Friday, Britain said it would not recognise a Palestinian state unilaterally and would wait for “a wider plan” for peace in the region.
Macron has also not yet persuaded Germany to follow suit and recognise a Palestinian state in the short term.
The conference “offers a unique opportunity to transform international law and the international consensus into an achievable plan and to demonstrate resolve to end the occupation and conflict once and for all, for the benefit of all peoples,” said the Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, calling for “courage” from participants.
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However, Israel and the United States will not attend the meeting.
Jonathan Harounoff, a spokesperson for Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said the conference “doesn’t first urgently address the issue of condemning Hamas and returning all of the remaining hostages”.
As international pressure continues to mount on Israel to end nearly two years of war in Gaza, the humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal territory is expected to dominate speeches by representatives of more than 100 countries as they take to the podium from Monday to Wednesday.
On Sunday, the Israeli military began limited pauses in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day – part of measures including airdrops as concerns grow over surging hunger in the enclave.
Food airdropped into Gaza as Israel says opening aid routes
(with AFP)
Israel–Palestine two-state solution: What to expect from the UN meeting
Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting. The meeting will be co-chaired by the foreign ministers of France and Saudi Arabia. Israel’s right-wing government opposes a two-state solution.
Israel and its close ally the United States are boycotting the two-day meeting, which starts on 28 July, Monday, and will be co-chaired by the foreign ministers of France and Saudi Arabia.
Israel’s right-wing government opposes a two-state solution and the United States has called the meeting “counterproductive” to its efforts to end the war in Gaza. France and Saudi Arabia want the meeting to put a spotlight on the two-state solution, on the other hand, which they view as the only viable road map to peace and wish to start addressing the steps to get there.
What to expect at the UN’s Israel-Palestine peace push
Israel and the US are boycotting, with Israel opposing a two-state solution. The US labelled the meeting ‘counterproductive’ to its efforts to end the war in Gaza. The meeting was delayed and shortened amidst rising tensions in the region, including Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran. France and Saudi Arabia have been clear in their objective to place the two- state solution back at the centre of global peace efforts and begin laying out a practical roadmap to achieve it. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said, “It was absolutely necessary to restart a political process, the two state solution process, that is today threatened, more threatened than it has ever been.” The UN General Assembly has convened a high-level meeting this week to re-centre global focus on the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict. The aim is to promote a twostate solution that would see both peoples living side by side in peace, as independent nations. The conference is co-chaired by France andSaudi Arabia.
In a significant diplomatic push, the United Nations General Assembly has convened a two-day high-level meeting this week to re-centre global focus on the long-standing Israel-Palestine conflict. The aim: to promote a two-state solution that would see both peoples living side by side in peace, as independent nations.
Who is hosting the meeting, and who’s staying away?
The meeting, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, began on Monday. However, both Israel and its close ally, the United States, are boycotting the gathering. Israel’s current right-wing government has long opposed a two-state solution, while the US labelled the meeting “counterproductive” to its efforts to end the war in Gaza.
Initially scheduled for late June as a four-day summit, the meeting was delayed and shortened amidst rising tensions in the region, including Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran and the ongoing war in Gaza.
Why now, and what’s the goal?
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking on CBS News’ Face the Nation, said, “It was absolutely necessary to restart a political process, the two-state solution process, that is today threatened, more threatened than it has ever been.”
France and Saudi Arabia have been clear in their objective to place the two-state solution back at the centre of global peace efforts and begin laying out a practical roadmap to achieve it.
In a document circulated to UN members in May, the co-chairs outlined their main goal: to identify actions by “all relevant actors” to implement the two-state solution and “to urgently mobilise the necessary efforts and resources to achieve this aim, through concrete and time-bound commitments.”
Saudi diplomat Manal Radwan, who led her country’s delegation to the preparatory conference, stated the meeting must “chart a course for action, not reflection.” She added it should be “anchored in a credible and irreversible political plan that addresses the root cause of the conflict and offers a real path to peace, dignity and mutual security.”
What is the history behind the two-state idea?
The concept of partitioning the land dates back to the end of the British mandate over Palestine. In 1947, the UN proposed dividing the territory into Jewish and Arab states. While Israel accepted the plan, its declaration of independence in 1948 sparked war with neighbouring Arab nations, and the plan was never implemented.
By 1949, Jordan controlled the West Bank and east Jerusalem, while Egypt administered Gaza. Israel captured all three territories during the 1967 Mideast war, and since then, Palestinians have sought them as part of a future state.
The two-state solution, based on Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries, has been the foundation for peace talks since the 1990s and continues to enjoy broad international support. Its logic rests on the population balance in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, where Jews and Palestinians are roughly equal in number. An independent Palestinian state would preserve Israel’s Jewish-majority democracy and give Palestinians the long-sought goal of self-determination.
How does France’s position influence the discussion?
French President Emmanuel Macron recently announced that France would officially recognise the State of Palestine at the annual UN General Assembly gathering in September. With around 145 countries having already done so, France becomes the most influential Western nation to take this step.
Macron’s declaration comes at a time of increasing global concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where food shortages have reached deadly levels.
Why do Israel and the US oppose the talks?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly rejects the two-state solution, citing both nationalistic and security concerns.
He and his religious-nationalist base see the West Bank as the ancestral Jewish homeland, and east Jerusalem, which includes Judaism’s holiest site and important Christian and Muslim shrines, as Israel’s undivided capital.
Hard-line Israelis argue the Palestinians do not want peace, pointing to the second intifada in the early 2000s and the Hamas takeover of Gaza just two years after Israel withdrew from the territory in 2005. That takeover has led to five wars, including the current 21-month-long conflict.
Netanyahu’s preferred approach appears to be maintaining the current status quo, where Israel retains overarching control, expands settlements, and grants Palestinians limited autonomy under the Palestinian Authority. He condemned France’s recognition plans, saying it “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became.”
What do the Palestinians want from this meeting?
Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and close ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the meeting is intended as preparation for a summit expected in September. That meeting is likely to take place either in France or on the sidelines of the UN’s high-level General Assembly.
Majdalani outlined key Palestinian goals: the launch of a “serious international political process leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” increased international recognition of Palestinian statehood, especially by countries like Britain, and economic support for the Palestinian Authority. He also stressed the need for international backing in rebuilding and recovering Gaza.
What outcomes can be expected?
All 193 UN member states were invited to attend, and according to a French diplomat, around 40 ministers are participating. A final outcome document has been circulated and could be adopted during the meeting. There may also be announcements of intent to recognise Palestine.
But with the absence of Israel and the United States, two of the most pivotal players, no immediate breakthrough or renewed negotiations are expected.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, however, called on participants “to keep the two-state solution alive.” He added the international community must not only support a solution where Israel and an independent Palestine live side by side in peace, but also “materialise the conditions to make it happen.”
AP inputs
World shares advance after EU strikes trade deal with Trump
World stock markets advanced Monday after the European Union worked out a trade deal with the Trump administration. Germany’s DAX gained 0.3% to 24,296.51, while the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.6% to 7,881.21. Britain’s FTSE 100 picked up 0.1% to 9,130.17. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1. 1% to 40,998.27 after doubts surfaced over what exactly last week’s trade truce between Japan and Trump entails, especially Japan’s $550 billion pledge of investment in the U.S. Wall Street has zoomed higher on hopes that President Donald Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will lower his stiff proposed tariffs, along with the risk that they could cause a recession and drive up inflation. The Dow climbed 0.5% to 44,901.92, the Nasdaq composite added 0.2%, closing at 21,108.32 to top its own record.
Investors were focusing on trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials in Stockholm, Sweden.
Germany’s DAX gained 0.3% to 24,296.51, while the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.6% to 7,881.21. Britain’s FTSE 100 picked up 0.1% to 9,130.17.
The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.3% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%.
The agreement between the EU and U.S. President Donald Trump calls for 15% tariffs on most EU exports to the U.S. Before Trump began ramping up tariffs, the average level was 1%.
The deal was announced after Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at the president’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. It staves off far higher import duties on both sides that might have sent shock waves through economies around the globe.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1.1% to 40,998.27 after doubts surfaced over what exactly last week’s trade truce between Japan and Trump entails, especially Japan’s $550 billion pledge of investment in the U.S.
Terms of the deal are still being negotiated and nothing has been formalized in writing, said an official who insisted on anonymity to detail the terms of the talks. The official suggested the goal was for a $550 billion fund to make investments at Trump’s direction.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.7% to 25,562.13, while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher to 3,597.94. Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.2%.
CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong conglomerate that’s selling ports at the Panama Canal, said it may seek a Chinese investor to join a consortium of buyers in a move that might please Beijing but could also bring more U.S. scrutiny to a geopolitically fraught deal. CK Hutchison’s shares fell 0.8% on Monday in Hong Kong.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.4% to 3,209.52, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 8,697.70. India’s Sensex slipped 0.7%.
Markets in Thailand were closed for a holiday.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,388.64, setting an all-time for the fifth time in a week. The Dow climbed 0.5% to 44,901.92, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.2%, closing at 21,108.32 to top its own record.
Deckers, the company behind Ugg boots and Hoka shoes, jumped 11.3% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. Its growth was particularly strong outside the United States, where revenue soared nearly 50%.
But Intell fell 8.5% after reporting a loss for the latest quarter, when analysts were looking for a profit. The struggling chipmaker also said it would cut thousands of jobs and eliminate other expenses as it tries to turn around its fortunes. Intel, which helped launch Silicon Valley as the U.S. technology hub, has fallen behind rivals like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices while demand for artificial intelligence chips soars.
Companies are under pressure to deliver solid growth in profits to justify big gains for their stock prices, which have rallied to record after record in recent weeks.
Wall Street has zoomed higher on hopes that President Donald Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will lower his stiff proposed tariffs, along with the risk that they could cause a recession and drive up inflation. Trump has recently announced deals with Japan and the Philippines, and the next big deadline is looming on Friday, Aug. 1.
Apart from trade talks, this week will also feature a meeting by the Federal Reserve on interest rates. Trump again on Thursday lobbied the Fed to cut rates, which he has implied could save the U.S. government money on its debt repayments.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said he is waiting for more data about how Trump’s tariffs affect the economy and inflation before making a move. The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that the Fed will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates.
In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 62 cents to $65.78 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 62 cents to $68.28 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 148.41 Japanese yen from 147.71 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1658 from $1.1758.