Jimmy Carter: there is zero chance for the two-state solution

The US has withdrawn from tackling the Middle East's most intractable problem, says the former President

by Bronwen Maddox / August 13, 2015 / Leave a comment

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem. © Pool/Pool

Former US President Jimmy Carter visits the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem © Pool/Pool

“At this moment, there is zero chance of the two-state solution,” said Jimmy Carter, giving his bleakest pronouncement yet on the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock to which he devoted much effort while President of the United States, and even more time since then.

“These are the worst prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians for years,” he said, adding that he didn’t think that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, “has any intention” of making progress towards the goal, the thrust of international efforts for decades, of the creation of a separate state for the Palestinians alongside Israel. After John Kerry’s efforts as Secretary of State to broker a deal, which collapsed in the spring last year, the “US has withdrawn” from the problem, he reckoned.

Carter, US President from 1977 to 1981, spoke to Prospect on the launch of his new book (his 29th), A Full Life: Reflections at 90, and just shortly before the operation that revealed he had cancer, and that it had spread. He is arguably the best recent case of a president who gained in stature after he left office, and this crisp survey of the arc of his life and passions shows why. It is a reminder of the strength of the moral views of someone described as “more of a missionary than a legislator”; his lack of fear in voicing them on the global stage, and his enduring lack of inte…

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As the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 2000s, Paddy Ashdown...

Comments

Bob
August 13, 2015 at 14:43
As long as there are Arab land claims on Israel: there will be war. Period. In the War for the Land: Land is victory and Victory is land.
1. Joshua
  August 14, 2015 at 16:05
  - I agree. Supporting the partition of Palestine, was, in the long run, perhaps the greatest idiocy in the whole history of US foreign policy. Truman--what a doof.
kuhn01
August 15, 2015 at 09:30
About Carter's comments on Israel and Netanyahu: sad but true.
bluto
August 16, 2015 at 20:55
The decision by Obama not be pressured into war by the Israeli Lobby/Jewish Lobby and Israelis themselves (Bibi, Dermer) etc is what makes him the greatest president since George Washington.... It's the 2nd American Revolution folks - America free of the Israeli Lobby/Jewish Lobby 'LOBBYING', if that ridiculous term describes what they are actually doing/have done America for American interests - rather than being wagged by the Israeli Lobby tail Everyday Americans stopped the drive to war on Syria (as a backdoor to Iran) by the Neocons and the REST of the Israeli Lobby and WE will stop their drive to detroy the Iran deal and get another bite at the apple on Iran This leadership by Obama has changed the course of history for the US and has also changed the course of history awaiting Apartheid Israel, with successfully advancing ICC cases against it, the UN Sec Co Resolution against Israel, SUPPORTED BY OBAMA'S AMERICA, coming next month Sept 2015, and the worldwide BDS opening up against the Apartheid
Bruce Bieri
September 2, 2015 at 12:01
President Jimmy Carter said there is no chance of seeing the two-state solution realized "at this moment," accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pursuing a one-state solution without equal rights for Palestinians.