President Barack Obama has so mishandled relations between Israel and the Palestinians that it'll make it much harder to reach a "two-state solution" during his term, Harvard professor and lawyer Alan Dershowitz says.
In a panel discussion led by "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth on
Newsmax TV on Friday, Dershowitz asserted that Obama has "lost the confidence" of both sides on the contentious issue.
"It's going to be much harder to get a two-state solution under Obama than it would be under a new president, whether it be a Democrat or Republican," he said. "Obama has lost the confidence of the Israeli people and the Israeli leadership as well as of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership. He has not handled this process very well at all."
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Noting that Obama had
told a conservative Jewish group in Washington, D.C., that "the people of Israel must always know America has its back," Dershowitz also said he thinks the president supports Israel's ability to defend itself.
But he adds, "That doesn't include against Iran."
"He picked this conservative synagogue very carefully — it's a synagogue that has a rabbi who is very supportive of him," Dershowitz said. "He made a great speech … though I remain critical of his position on Iran and I don't think he handled the [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu relationship very diplomatically or effectively."
Yet, Dershowitz said, "the criticism of him should be nuanced and calibrated, and he has provided Israel with lots of weaponry and lots of intelligence, and Israel of course has provided the United States with lots of intelligence … but I disagree and will continue to disagree with his Iran policy."
"It's not that he's wrong when he said the choices now may be between bad and worse, he's wrong to have gotten us into the position where we have to choose between bad and worse. Israel may not be able to accept that choice, ultimately."
Former Michigan GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra said in his recent meeting with the Israelis,
"They're very skeptical about this administration being able to work with Israel and being able to work with the Palestinians" to reach a two-state solution.
"They sense a weakness right now in America and a failure [of] leadership," he added.
"They're not only concerned about the negotiations with Iran, they're concerned with the war that's going on right now with ISIS and the engagement of this administration with the radical Muslim Brotherhood and other groups that no administration had really reached out to before."
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