Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come up with a new, supposedly sophisticated answer for pesky journalists who ask whether he still supports the two-state solution. If Netanyahu responded that he hopes for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, he would incur the wrath of his friends in the government, the Likud and the Knesset. On the other hand, if he said the two-state solution is dead in the water, he would face condemnation by the entire international community. He cannot, however, simply ignore the question. So what can he do? Throw out the response, “Rather than deal with labels, I want to deal with substance.”
Netanyahu tested this evasion tactic Feb. 15 at a joint White House news conference with President Donald Trump. A week later he recycled it while standing alongside his Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, at a news conference in Sydney.
