Americans for Peace Now (APN) today reiterated its call on the Obama administration to support French-led efforts to gain consensus around a United Nations Security Council laying out terms of reference and a timeline for Israeli-Palestinian, two-state negotiations. APN urged the Obama administration to reject efforts to delay such a resolution until after Israeli elections (March 2015).  APN President and CEO Debra DeLee commented: 

"As a true friend of Israel, the Obama administration should be working closely with the French and other parties to achieve consensus around a new Israeli-Palestinian peace resolution in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and to help pass such a resolution expeditiously.  Passage of a two-state resolution by the UNSC offers an historic opportunity for friends of Israel in the international community, including the Obama administration, to breathe new life into the two-state solution.  It can go a long way to strengthening those Israelis and Palestinians – among both the general population and among the current and potential leaders – who stand firmly with such a solution.  It can also send a much-needed message to rejectionists on both sides, making clear that the world is out of patience with ideologies and actions that prioritize land over peace, and prefer perpetual war in pursuit of zero-sum outcomes to a negotiated compromise.

"The Obama administration should disregard those voices arguing that action on any such a resolution should be delayed until after Israeli elections.  U.S. policy should be grounded in principled U.S. positions, not efforts to game internal Israeli or Palestinian domestic political developments. Those concerned about potential impacts on Israeli elections should recognize, too, that passage of a constructive two-state resolution in the UNSC would ensure that Israeli voters go the polls with their minds focused on the fact that Israel's next government will not be able to avoid dealing with the most important – indeed, existential – challenges facing their country: its future relations with the Palestinians and its neighbors in the region, the imminent threat continued occupation and settlements pose to Israel's survival as a democracy and its character as a Jewish state, and the dramatic erosion of Israel's relations with even its closest allies as a result of its leaders' pro-settlement, pro-Greater Israel policies.

"As we have said, over and over, nobody should imagine that passage of a UNSC resolution can, in itself, end the occupation or resolve permanent status issues at the heart of the conflict. Only negotiations can achieve those goals. However, developments on the ground are rapidly eroding the very possibility of achieving the two-state solution and emboldening extremists on both sides.  Until now, the relative passivity of the world in the face of these developments, and its tacit acquiescence to continued hostilities between and among the parties, has only bolstered those who are eager to close the door, once-and-for-all, on any possibility of coexistence in the region with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and with security. Passage of a consensus UN resolution can change this corrosive dynamic, opening the door for new, more serious negotiations."