Joe Biden on Israel-Palestine Conflict as he Pledges Help to Rebuild Gaza

A Palestinian woman walks past a dsetroyed building in the al-Rimal commercial district in Gaza City on May 22, 2021, following a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli-blockaded enclave.  (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

President Joe Biden on Friday pledged to help organize efforts to rebuild Gaza and said creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel is the “only answer” to the conflict.

Biden stated that he had asked the Israelis to stop “inter-communal fighting” in the flashpoint city of Jerusalem. He however stressed “there is no shift in my commitment, commitment to the security of Israel” and added that until the region “unequivocally” acknowledges Israel’s existence “there will be no peace.”

This is coming two days after Israel-Palestine declared a ceasefire following 11-days of bloodshed, US President Joe Biden on Friday extended his support to help organize efforts to rebuild Gaza even as he insisted on a two-state solution–with a sovereign Palestinian state and Jerusalem as their shared capital with Israel–as “the only answer” to the conflict.

The idea of a two-state solution — with a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel and Jerusalem as their shared capital — has been the cornerstone of decades of international diplomacy aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

US policy under Donald Trump was criticized as being blatantly pro-Israel and ignoring the Palestinians.

A Mideast peace plan devised by Trump’s adviser and son in law Jared Kushner was billed as providing for a two-state solution. But that blueprint envisioned a Palestinian state with only limited sovereignty and Israel maintaining security over that state.

The plan was rejected out of hand by Palestinian leaders.

A Palestinian inspects the rubble of buildings, destroyed by Israeli strikes, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 21, 2021. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

Biden on Friday insisted on a full-blown two-state remedy.

“There is no shift in my commitment to the security of Israel, period, no shift, not at all,” he said.

A Palestinian policeman walks on the rubble of Arafat City, Gaza’s police headquarters in Gaza City on May 22, 2021, following a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli-blockaded enclave. – As the ceasefire holds, humanitarian aid began to enter the enclave ravaged by 11 days of bloodshed. While thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to their homes, and Israelis began to resume normal life a day earlier, international focus turned to the reconstruction of the bomb-shattered Gaza Strip. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

“But I tell you what there is a shift in. The shift is that we still need a two-state solution. It is the only answer, the only answer,” Biden stated.