Former Israeli and Palestinian PMs say a two-state solution is still possible
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and former Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad say parties must pursue a two-state solution after the current war ends.
In interviews with Rosemary Barton Live, both former leaders weighed in on a postwar plan for the Gaza Strip and the best ways to stabilize the region.
Olmert served as Israel’s prime minister from 2006 to 2009. He led the country during Israel’s war with Lebanon and was in office when Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
He told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton that a two-state solution should still be the goal of the Israeli government.
Featured VideoFormer Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert says the two-state solution is ‘essential’ to bringing peace to the region, stating that it should be the ‘end game’ for the Israeli government.
“That is essential in order to change the balance and start and create a certain momentum that will lead into an entirely different situation. Israel has to do it. This is my endgame and I think that it should be the endgame of the Israeli government,” he said.
When Olmert was prime minister, Salam Fayyad was his counterpart in the West Bank. Fayyad served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority from 2007 to 2013.
Fayyad told Barton a path to peace is possible as long as Israel recognizes Palestinians’ right to their own state.
Featured VideoFormer Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad says the war in Gaza needs to come to a ‘swift’ end. ‘How many more Palestinians will need to perish,’ he says.
“We need recognition of that right before we really begin a new process, because for three decades we’ve been running into circles,” he said, adding that what matters most now is bringing the current carnage to an end.
A postwar plan for Gaza
One major unanswered question remains who will govern Gaza after the war ends.
Olmert told Barton that international troops should take temporary control of the region.
“My belief is that, number one, we have to appeal to the friends of Israel, to the European countries, to America first and foremost, but to Canada as well and say to them … If you want to have some kind of stability in this region, then we need to have an intervention military force that will take over at the end of the military operation of Israel,” he said.
Olmert also said Israel does not want to occupy the Gaza strip and the Palestinian Authority should eventually re-take control of the region.
“We pulled out of Gaza in 2005. We don’t want to keep it and we want to allow an international force for an interim period of time now,” he said.
Fayyad told Barton he doubts the Palestinian Authority, as it’s currently configured politically, would want the responsibility of governing Gaza.
“This is a tall order and the Palestinian Authority as it stands now, politically speaking, is not really in a position to be able to handle that responsibility. And that’s really apart, quite apart from the question of willingness to really do this, in the aftermath of such a massive, aggressive war against our people in Gaza,” he said.
“What can do it, and I’m all for it, is a Palestinian Authority that’s reconfigured in a way that can make it possible for it to do this.”
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Sunday that more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which began when Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. That attack left about 1,400 people dead and saw more than 240 others taken hostage, the Israeli government says.
Fayyad said civilian hostages must be released as soon as possible.
“I think the mere prospect of civilian hostages, or captives released, is something that I hope would generate enough of a dynamic in the direction of slowing this mad dash to hell,” he said.
