Trudeau pushes back after Netanyahu again rejects two-state solution

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Benjamin Netanyahu's position on Palestinian statehood after the Israeli president claimed in a nationally-televised speech that the so-called "two-state solution" is dead.

"I was not surprised to hear Prime Minister Netanyahu share that. That has long been his position," Trudeau said Thursday when asked about the comments at a press conference in Iqaluit.

"He and I had, just a few weeks ago, an extensive conversation on exactly this topic and others.

"Canada's position is crystal clear. We believe the only way forward for the region, indeed the only way forward for a safe and secure Israel, is to have a Palestinian state that is also safe and secure with internationally-recognized borders. We believe in a two-state solution."

Netanyahu's decision to lay his cards on the table Thursday sets up a potential conflict with Israel's most important backer, U.S. President Joe Biden.

His address to the Israeli nation followed weeks of pressure by the United States to get Netanyahu's government to commit to a plan for the post-Gaza War period that includes a clear roadmap to a sovereign, independent Palestinian state.

Despite Israeli requests for Biden to stop talking about the two-state solution during the war, the American leader and his envoys have continued to insist.

All of Israel's western allies say they want to see the conflict resolved according to the principle of land-for-peace that Israel agreed to decades ago in the Oslo Accords.

Netanyahu has long opposed a two-state solution but has generally avoided saying so explicitly, at least in English.

In Hebrew, he has been more frank. In 2010, the Jerusalem Post released a 2001 video of Netanyahu in which he said he "de facto put an end to the Oslo Accords."

His televised speech will further embarrass Biden, who has given Israel unconditional backing since the Hamas attacks of October 7. Biden has insisted that the U.S. and Israel are working together toward a two-state solution.

In his statement Thursday, Netanyahu told Israelis that "the prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends."

On September 22, 2023, Netanyahu went before the UN General Assembly with a printed map entitled "The New Middle East" that showed a Greater Israel in blue containing all of the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean.

"In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control of all territory west of the Jordan [River]," Netanyahu said Thursday. "This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?"