Obama administration says two-state solution only solution

The Obama administration has announced that a two-state solution is the only solution between Israel and Palestine. White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel also told Jewish leaders in Washington that if Israel wants help defusing an Iranian threat they must get ready to evacuate settlements in the West Bank. Israel's new government has backed the two-state proposal although the new conservative Prime Minister, Benjamin Natenyah is not supportive of the idea of a Palestinian state. In a surprise to me the AIPAC, the huge Jewish lobby in Washington, which is in a large part responsible for the $2.5 billion given to Israel in aid each year, is urging members of congress to do support the two-state solution. The AIPAC has historically been a deterrent of the peace process.

This is hopefully a welcome change, but a two-state solution can still work favorably to Israel while keeping the West Bank and especially Gaza in a state of poverty that will further fuel violence. At that point the argument will be that the Palestinians were given their own nation yet they are still fighting and inciting violence. The United States and Israel have always stood in the way of the UN peace resolutions (wish I had a source for this, but Noam Chomsky has debated and cited this fact many times). I'm skeptical of things all of a sudden getting fixed that Obama is in town, but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, violence is still prevalent in the border regions. An independent photo journalist caught these shocking photographs of the Israeli Defense Force killing Basem Abu Rahmeh while peacefully protesting. He was killed by the same type of high speed gas canister that critically injured U.S. citizen Tristan Anderson in a similar situation a month ago.