Israel Faces a Hard Sell in Bid to Shift Policy

Posted by Justin Bresolin

Israel's government has drafted plans to adopt a new foreign policy system, one aimed at providing solutions toward the country's relationship with Palestine. The new plan attempts to move away from the current policy of relying entirely upon the trading of land to Palestine and its declaration of being a state, which is argued to ignore the issue of a steadily rising Iranian hegemon and the Muslim rejection of Israeli sovereignty.

The plan, intended to be presented to President Obama at their next summit meeting on May 18th, faces challenges in the forms of a lack of an alternative solution to the current two-state plan as well as the United States' and Europe's strong backing of the current foreign policy. Israel fears that the need to view the Israeli region as one whole in order to best confront Iran will only lead to further backing of the two-state plan. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, will likely argue that while the ultimate goal is that of a unified region, the idea of a Palestinian state is one far from being possible at this point, requiring the bolstering of economic and political institutions as well as education programs promoting co-existence between the two states.

This new plan represents an alternate thinking towards a two-state plan that has been viewed as unsuccessful up to this point, as well as concern toward what many Israelis consider the much more immediate threat of an aggressive Iran. It is a complicated situation that is further exacerbated by the threat of looming conflict, and it will be interesting to see how the new policy plan will be received at the summit, and what changes it might bring, if any.