ARAB WORLD - Two-State Solution?

Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip.

Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union, threw their weight behind a seven-page text—obtained by The Times of Israel—agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and has rejected the meeting on both nationalistic and security grounds. Israel’s close ally, the United States, is also boycotting, calling the meeting “unproductive and ill-timed.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon sharply criticized the some 125 countries participating in the conference, saying “there are those in the world who fight terrorists and extremist forces and then there are those who turn a blind eye to them or resort to appeasement.”

-www.timesofisrael.com, 30 July 2025

Commentary: While Israel welcomed the Muslim world’s first condemnation of Hamas’ murderous invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023 and call for the release of hostages, Prime Minister Netanyahu rightly stated it’s “unproductive and ill-timed.”

One must consider the various facts presented to the Arab Palestinians, beginning in 1947 with the UN Partition Plan. The Arabs answered, “No way!” That was followed in 1993 by the Oslo Accords, which agreed to the Two-State Solution. In the year 2000, there was a Camp David Summit, followed in 2008 by a peace proposal from Ehud Olmert. Even in 2009, Prime Minister Netanyahu endorsed the Two-State Solution. And in 2022, Prime Minister Yair Lapid expressed support for a Two-State Solution.

From practical perspectives, it is all but impossible to implement a Two-State Solution. Arab Palestinians in particular will not and cannot allow a Jewish State. This indoctrination has been promoted by their leaders for almost eight decades.

There is another important reason: poverty. Just to name one country, Syria, 90% of the population lives on less than $2.15 per day. Almost half of the population lives with food insecurity. Syria’s per capita GDP stands at $4,500, Egypt at $3,174, Lebanon at $5,282, and Israel at $57,760.

Facts on the ground clearly show that prosperity and poverty cannot coexist. An example is Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic’s per capita GDP is $23,100, and Haiti’s is only $3,000 (2023) and is declining.

Above and beyond these geopolitical facts is the prophetic Word. Clear borders were given by God in an unconditional covenant with Abraham. Therefore, the future is determined: “from the river to the sea”—from the River of Egypt (Wadi el-Arish) to the Euphrates. There is still much Arab-occupied Israel territory.