The Zionist Organization of America supported and praised Sen. Marco Rubio for his statements that creating a Palestinian state under current conditions would be creating a terror state.
Rubio made the comments during the confirmation hearings of David Friedman, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Israel, to explain why Friedman’s position against the creation of a Palestinian state was reasonable and rational, according to a ZOA press release. Rubio clarified that in an ideal situation, a two-state solution would be preferred, in which Israel and Palestine would live side by side in peace.
“The problem is that there are significant impediments to that—perhaps the least of which is the existence of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Rubio said. Rubio also pointed out that a major obstacle to a two-state solution is the fact that the Palestinian Authority does not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a “homeland for the Jewish people.”
“How can you negotiate a peaceful existence with a neighbor who does not recognize your right to exist? What are you negotiating—the terms of your destruction? I think that’s a much bigger impediment,” Israel National News reported Rubio as saying.
Rubio also noted in his remarks that when Palestinian leaders call terrorists martyrs and give justifications for the attacks, they are inciting violence and creating further impediments to a workable two-state solution, according to Israel National News.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said in the news release that Rubio’s remarks were “clear-sighted” and “principled” and that he “clearly understands the real issues that stand in the way of peace,” as well as the issues, like Jewish settlements, that do not.