DEIR DIBWAN, West Bank — Maisoon Ali, a Palestinians banker, has a message for visiting U.S Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.
She wants him to understand and acknowledge that the vision of an independent Palestinian nation living alongside Israel — the two-state solution favored by most U.S. administrations for years — is dead and buried.
“It has been killed,” said Ali, 56. “I can’t even dream it. I don’t see it. … This is what I want the secretary to hear.”
Blinken, wrapping up a three-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah, a day after extended consultations with Israel’s prime minister, president and foreign minister.Abbas, 87, had tough words for Israel, its continued occupation of Palestinian territories and the failure of the “international community” to stop actions by Israel to seize Palestinian-claimed land and thwart efforts by the Palestinians Authority to find justice in international forums — efforts that Washington firmly opposes.
At every turn in this visit, Blinken has reiterated his government’s long-standing support for the two-state solution, even as its prospects seem more distant than ever — to both Israelis and Palestinians.
The far right that now governs Israel has long opposed independence for the approximately 4.5 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
For the Palestinians themselves, rejection of the two-state solution has been a slower evolution.
In an independent Palestine next to Israel, which has insisted on keeping control of some of the future state's borders and airspace, "we would just have the name , Israel the power, "said 80-years -old Mohamed Mustafa, another resident of Deir Dibwan, who lived in the U.S for many years and said he fought for the U.S military Vietnam.
Years of failed, occasionally bad-faith negotiations , interspersed with periods of violence from both sides, have only achieved a modicum of sovereignty for Palestinians while Isreal continued to permit tens of thousands of Jewish settlers to move into west Bank lands claimed by the Palestinians,. The heavily guarded Israeli settlements have effectively made creating a contiguous state next to impossible.
"The two-state solution was killed by the Israelis," Ali said ."I know [Blinken]
Knows it's not working ... I look for the American government to take a stand and say it has been killed by Israel." Ali was born in this affluent village near Ramallah, heavily populated with Palestinian Americans, and lived in the United States more than half her life. She holds a U.S . Passport, but because of her Palestinian birth is barred from using Israel's airport and suffers other indignities, she said.
Opinion polls have shown support for the two-state vision declining steadily
among Palestinians, reflecting frustration and a sense that a viable state will never happen.Instead, many Palestinians now support for the two-state vision decline steadily among Palestinians, reflecting frustration and a sense that a viable state will never happen.