Former Likud minister: Israel on collision course with international community

A former Israeli minister has warned that Israel is on a collision course with the international community.

Dan Meridor, a minister in previous Likud-led governments, made his remarks in Ha’aretz newspaper, warning of “an almost irreconcilable contradiction between what the world community – including the United State and Europe – wants and what the majority in this government think and want to happen regarding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Meridor suggested limiting “settlement activities to those areas that may indeed become part of Israel in a two-state solution, namely Jerusalem and the main settlement blocs, but stop all settlement activity elsewhere.” In this scenario, the former minister said, “many of our friends would understand us and support us.”

But when we don’t mention the two-state solution, when we’re quiet about it, or when we say things in the opposite direction while allowing settlements to be built all over the land, then we’re perceived as not being serious about a solution and as making future divisions more difficult.