Blinken: Israelis must drop WB annexation and accept Palestinian state if they want peace and security
With ceasefire talks nearing fruition, the outgoing secretary of state says a postwar withdrawal from Gaza and two-state solution are the only possible paths
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Jan. 06. Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh January 14, 2025
In a speech repeatedly disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Israeli Jews must abandon ideas of annexing the occupied West Bank and accept the need for an independent Palestinian state if they hope for a secure future and regional peace.
“Our imperative is not to turn back the clock to the way things were before Oct. 7,” Blinken said in remarks at the Atlantic Council. “It is to forge a new reality for the Middle East.”
“Is it hard?” he asked rhetorically, “Yes. Is it impossible? No. Is it necessary? Absolutely, yes.”
Blinken spoke as U.S. and other officials suggested that Israel and Hamas were close to signing a deal to pause the war in Gaza for 42 days and release 33 Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Blinken detailed a series of steps the Biden administration has urged Israel to take to address the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accept an interim government made up of international security forces and vetted Palestinian personnel. A postwar plan is crucial to move to the second phase of the agreement, he said, which would include the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The United States, Europe and Arab nations will be very reluctant to take part in such a postwar plan, he warned, “absent some kind of clear political horizon” for an independent Palestine.
About 100 of the 250 people abducted from Israel during the Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7 are believed still in Gaza, many of them presumed dead. The deal currently on the table calls for releasing 33, including five female Israeli soldiers, who would each be exchanged for 50 Palestinian prisoners. Far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have said they would quit the coalition if the deal goes through.
Blinken’s vision for peace and security
The parameters for the deal were first outlined by President Joe Biden in May, but both Israel and Hamas leaders balked. The broader goal, Blinken said, is to guarantee Israel’s security while establishing a Palestinian state, potentially laying the groundwork for expanding the Abraham Accords into a broader agreement with Saudi Arabia. ItsThe
Since the war in Gaza began in 2023, Biden and Blinken have grown increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s refusal to discuss a postwar plan for Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Biden and Netanyahu also publicly clashed over key issues, including the launch of a ground operation in Rafah.
On Tuesday, Blinken maintained that U.S. military aid and diplomatic support for Israel had prevented an even larger regional war and helped crush Iran and its proxies in the region. His remarks echoed Biden’s final foreign policy speech on Monday, where the president said he was leaving his successor “with a very strong hand to play” to capitalize “on a new moment for a more stable, integrated Middle East.”
President-elect Donald Trump, whose golf buddy and adviser Steve Witkoff joined the latest ceasefire talks in Qatar, has repeatedly said he wants to see the war in Gaza end and move toward regional peace. But in a recent interview in Time magazine, Trump did not make clear whether he supports a two-state solution to the conflict.
“I support whatever solution we can do to get peace,” he said. “I want a long-lasting peace, a peace where we don’t have an Oct. 7 in another three years. And there are numerous ways you can do it. You can do it two-state, but there are numerous ways it can be done.”
Blinken spoke the day before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee convened to consider the nomination of his successor, Sen. Marco Rubio, The Florida senator ran for president in 2016 as a foreign policy hawk. He criticized Trump back then for pledging to be “neutral” on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. However, in recent years, he has moderated his views, aligning more closely with Trump’s populist agenda. In a video posted by Code Pink last year, Rubio said he was opposed to a ceasefire and expected Israel “to destroy every element of Hamas.”
‘Ultimately, we can try to lay out the path, but others have to walk it,” Blinken said as he prepared to exit the diplomatic stage. “We’ll do everything we can to support them if they do that.”
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