Next week, President Obama and Mitt Romney will debate our nation’s foreign policy and clarify their visions for America’s role in the world over the next four years. One of the foremost issues is the evolving Middle East. Amidst change and turmoil, it is often easy to kick the can down the road when it comes to that region. However, one issue the candidates cannot lose sight of is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Solving the conflict is necessary for a secure future — without fixed borders for Israelis and full political and human rights for Palestinians, there will be no peace and the regional situation will continue to deteriorate.
It has long been accepted doctrine in the U.S., the Middle East and the wider world that a two-state solution is the only viable and acceptable outcome. Every administration since George H.W. Bush has emphasized this and has worked toward that goal. The vast majority of American and Israeli security officials support two states — one for the Palestinians and one for the Israelis.
Only recently has this solution become somehow “controversial.” Various Republican candidates including Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney have made comments disparaging the Palestinian people and deriding the idea of two states. Romney has been quoted saying that peace is not possible, that he would not work towards peace in his administration and that the only thing that can be done is to pass the buck — to kick the issue down the road and to hope for the best.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are now prone to using the issue of Israel to score points, pushing each other further and further to the right and to more hawkish positions that help no one and make a solution impossible. They are pushed in this by loud, wealthy, minority voices that spend huge amounts of money to advance an extreme, anomalous and dangerous vision.
A two-state solution is the only way to ensure Israel is a democratic state with a Jewish majority and secure borders. It is the only way to guarantee full political and human rights for Palestinians in their own state, with its own national character. No other outcome allows both Israelis and Palestinians full freedom to live peacefully and freely in a state that reflects their own history and culture. No other outcome would result in anything other than even further unrest, violence and injustice.
This is the outcome desired by the majority of Palestinians and Israelis, including the President of the Palestinian Authority. American Jews vote overwhelmingly for candidates who support a two-state solution and American leadership. Polls show us that 83 percent of American Jews support an active U.S. role in helping the parties resolve the conflict.
Israel and Palestine are not very far apart in their views — the two state solution has been thoroughly sketched out and developed by negotiators from both sides, and as recently as 2008 both sides believed that they were very close to an agreement. The solution will work. What is needed now is not new ideas, but the political will and leadership to implement it. American leadership is crucial. Previous breakthroughs in Israeli-Arab peace have been brought about through American leadership to bring the parties together, including the Israeli-Egypt peace through the Camp David Accords, the Palestinian recognition of Israel and the Oslo Accords.
It can happen again, and if either of the two presidential candidates are willing to accept this reality and gather the political will to pursue action after the election, it will be a victory for Israelis, Palestinians, Americans and the world community at large.
Jordan Carmon is a sophomore International Studies major from New York, N.Y.
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