09 Nov 2020; MEMO: Former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said he expects that the new American administration run by President-elect Joe Biden to reconsider the two-state solution with regards to the Israel-Palestine conflict, RT reported yesterday.
Speaking to Israeli radio, Shapiro, who is currently a visiting distinguished fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said: “Joe Biden, whom I know very well, believes that the two states for two peoples is the main way to solve the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians.”
He also said that Biden “is an old-fashioned supporter of Israel and he recognises the importance of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for Israel as it bears the direct burden of people’s life.” Therefore, Shapiro said, Biden “will work on the economic and political survival of the PA.”
For her part, Amira Hass, analyst and reporter at the Israeli daily Haaretz, said that Biden “recognises the importance of the PA for Israel’s security,” stating that Biden’s election is “good” for the PA.
Hass expected diplomatic relations between the US and the PA to resume, and said the US would look for a way to resume funding for the PA, which became difficult due to the Terrorism Act ratified by Congress in 2018.
This, she added, could take place at the same time as the resumption of the PA’s security cooperation with Israel, adding that the PA might initiate the resumption of security cooperation with Israel as a good-will gesture to Biden.
