Trouble Ahead For Two-State Solution
Alon Pinkas examines the implications of the Israeli response to the Palestinian UN bid and what Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu might do next to revive hopes for a two-state solution.
What are the implications of the Palestinians' achieving non-member observer status at the United Nations, and the Israeli response announcing more settlements, including in areas east of Jerusalem delineated in maps as possibly part of a future Palestinian state?
There are two scenarios. In one word: Nothing. In one acronym: A LOT, meaning A Lot Of Trouble.
The "Nothing" scenario is based on either a peace process that would defuse this tension, or, in the absence of a process, an eventual, post -January, post-election Israeli refrain from actually building in "E1," the small area stretching east of Jerusalem and northwest of the settlement town Maale Edumim.
Israel can later cite legal complications, bureaucratic problems or security considerations leading to its decision to "maintain the right to build" but not exercise it.
