On the second day of a three-day Middle East tour, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Jan. 30 repeated calls for a “two-state” solution to the perennial Israel–Palestine conflict.
Blinken made the appeal amid steadily escalating Israeli–Palestinian violence that in recent days has claimed more than a dozen lives.
At a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken expressed Washington’s hope of seeing “freedom and security” in “equal measure” for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Israeli army soldiers take aim during clashes with Palestinian protesters following a demonstration to denounce the annual nationalist “flag march” through Jerusalem, in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on May 29, 2022. (Mosab Shawer/AFP via Getty Images)
President Joe Biden, he said, “remains fully committed to that goal. And we believe the best way to achieve it is through preserving—then realizing—the vision of two states [Israel and Palestine].”…