Washington
CNN
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained to President Joe Biden in a phone call Friday that the public comments he made a day earlier — in which he appeared to reject the idea of creating a Palestinian state — were not meant to foreclose that outcome in any form, a person familiar with the conversation told CNN.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed the possible attributes of a future Palestinian state that would ultimately need to be negotiated, the person added, describing the conversation as “serious” and “detailed.”
Biden administration officials have recently been engaged in discussions about a future demilitarized Palestinian state, an idea the president finds “intriguing,” the person said.
Biden is certainly familiar with the ideas of a demilitarized Palestinian state or one with a significantly limited military force that have been discussed over the years, one administration official said. And those are among the schools of thought that inform the president’s thinking as he pushes for a two-state solution with a security guarantee for Israel, the official added.
Hours after getting off the phone with Netanyahu, Biden made reference to that possibility when speaking to reporters at the White House, saying he believed “there are a number of types of two-state solutions.”
“There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that … don’t have their own military; a number of states that have limitations, and so I think there’s ways in which this can work,” Biden said.
He was less clear exactly how he would achieve it.
“I’ll let you know when I get him to agree,” Biden told reporters.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement Saturday: “In his conversation with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.”
The lack of certainty only underscored the challenge Biden faces as he tries to apply pressure on Netanyahu to adopt a new battlefield approach and plan for a future in Gaza, only to be met with open resistance and disagreement.
Biden and Netanyahu remain publicly at odds over the fundamental question of what will happen to Gaza once the Israel-Hamas war concludes, despite intense American efforts over the past several months to engage officials in Israel and the wider region on a plan they hope can finally resolve the decades-long conflict.
Biden and his top officials — including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Israel and the region last week — have said the creation of a Palestinian state with guarantees for Israel’s security is the only way to finally bring peace and stability to the Middle East.
Netanyahu said during a news conference Thursday that he had rejected those calls, arguing such a step would clash with the security of Israel.
“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control all territory west of Jordan. This clashes with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What can you do?” he told a news conference in Tel Aviv when asked about reports that he told American officials he opposes the idea of Palestinian sovereignty.
How the two leaders bridge that gap remains a question, one Biden’s aides recognize won’t be quickly resolved. According to Biden, however, the prospect of a demilitarized Palestinian state is an opening.
One Arab leader who has recently discussed the idea of a demilitarized Palestinian state in public is Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
“We said that we are ready for this state to be demilitarized, and there can also be guarantees of forces, whether NATO forces, United Nations forces, or Arab or American forces, until we achieve security for both states, the nascent Palestinian state and the Israeli state,” Sisi said at a news conference in November.
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