WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu softened on Thursday his opposition to a separate Palestinian state amid indications that the United States might back a pro-Palestinian move in the United Nations.

“I don’t want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution. But for that, circumstances have to change,” Mr Netanyahu said in an interview to an American news network, MSNBC. But the current political conditions made that possibility more remote.

On Monday, a day before the Israeli elections, Mr Netanyahu declared that the Palestinians would never have a state on his watch.

Although opinion polls showed he could lose, Mr Netanyahu won the election and is now trying to form a new government.

Mr Netanyahu’s earlier annou­ncement that he no longer recognised the two-state solution alarmed the White House, which reminded Israel that the US “has supported this policy for more than 20 years”.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that the Obama administration might now back a UN Security Council resolution “embodying the principles of a two-state solution that would include Israel’s 1967 borders with Palestine and mutually agreed swaps of territory”.

“The United States and this administration is deeply concerned by divisive rhetoric that seeks to marginalise Arab-Israeli citizens,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Thursday.

Some US media outlets reported that the United States could pull support for Israel at the UN where it has often vetoed moves to seek the world body’s recognition for a separate Palestinian state.

US President Barack Obama has delayed calling Mr Netanyahu to congratulate him on victory, which gave him a larger margin of victory than almost anyone predicted over rival Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union party.

Mr Obama is also annoyed with Mr Netanyahu for openly campaigning against his Iran policy in a joint address to the US Congress earlier this month.

But in his interview to MSNBC, Mr Netanyahu downplayed his differences with the Obama administration. “America has no greater ally than Israel and Israel has no greater ally than the US,” he said.

There’s an unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States. The president [President Barack Obama] said that, and I said that.”

Netanyahu said that he had not yet spoken to Obama following Tuesday’s election, but he was sure they would speak soon.

“We can have differences but we have so many things that unite us and we have a situation in the Middle East that is very dangerous and presents a common challenge to us,” he added.

Mr Netanyahu also defended his controversial decision to speak to the US Congress on the Iranian nuclear issue at the beginning of the month.

“We have our differences on Iran, but coming to the US, I didn’t mean any disrespect or any attempt at partisanship. I felt it was my obligation to speak about something that could endanger Israel,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2015

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