OCTOBER 14 • 2021 | 13

Centrist Dems Say Two-State Bill
Is ‘One-Sided’ and ‘Blames Israel’

Editor’s Note: The news story 
below counters some of the 
points made by Rep. Levin 
regarding his Two-State 
Solution Act.
T

he Two-State Solution 
Act introduced by Rep. 
Andy Levin with over 
a dozen co-sponsors aims “to 
preserve conditions for, and 
improve the likelihood of, a 
two-state solution that secures 
Israel’s future as a democratic 
state and a national home for 
the Jewish people, a viable, 
democratic Palestinian state.”
However, it faces an uphill 
battle to become law. The bill 
is strongly opposed by more 
moderate Democrats, who 
say it demands nothing of the 
Palestinians.
If passed, the bill orders 
the U.S. government to take a 
series of steps aimed at limit-
ing Israeli entrenchment in the 
West Bank.
The bill bars U.S. defense 
aid from use in acts by Israel 
to expand its control beyond 
the Green Line, through 
moves such as settlement 
building, demolitions of 
Palestinian homes, or evictions 
of Palestinian residents. It 
also mandates strict oversight 
of how Israel spends defense 
assistance more broadly.
The legislation says the 
West Bank, including eastern 
Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip 
are all occupied territories and 
should be referred to as such 
in all official U.S. policies, doc-
uments and communications.
Israel captured those areas 
in the 1967 Six-Day War 

and later annexed eastern 
Jerusalem. Israel withdrew 
from the Gaza Strip in 2005, 
handing over control to the 
Palestinian Authority, which 
was ousted in 2007 from the 
coastal enclave in a bloody 
coup by the Hamas terror 
group that still rules the Strip.
Israel regards all of 
Jerusalem as its capital. Former 
President Donald Trump rec-
ognized Jerusalem as Israel’s 
capital and shifted the U.S. 
embassy there from Tel Aviv.

‘COUNTERPRODUCTIVE’
The centrist Democratic 
Majority for Israel group 
quickly announced its oppo-
sition to the new bill, which 
it called “counterproductive, 
one-sided, and bad policy.” 
It added: “The bill wrongly 
blames Israel alone for the 
failure to achieve a two-state 
solution. The reality is that 
Israel has offered Palestinians 
— and Palestinian leaders have 
refused — a state of their own 
on several occasions.”
Group CEO 
Mark Mellman 
said, “This 
one-sided Two-
State Solution Act 
seems less about 
actually achieving 
a two-state solu-
tion and more about rewriting 
history — both ancient and 
modern — and stirring up 
anti-Israel hostility.”
The bill also seeks to reverse 
a 2020 Trump administration 
directive requiring goods 
made in Israeli settlements to 
be marked as “Made in Israel.” 

Under the bill, imports to the 
U.S. produced outside of Israel 
proper should be marked as 
made in the West Bank or 
Gaza.
In addition, the legislation 
seeks to advance the Lowey 
Fund passed by Congress 
last year, setting aside $250 
million in funding for Israeli-
Palestinian dialogue programs 
and Palestinian business 
development. The Two-State 
Solution Act urges the State 
Department to authorize 
grants to support human 
rights, democracy and the 
rule of law in Gaza and the 
West Bank as provided by the 
Lowey Fund.
The legislation urges 
President Joe Biden to follow 
through on campaign pledges 
to reopen the U.S. Consulate 
in Jerusalem, which served 
as the de facto mission to the 
Palestinians, along with the 
PLO Diplomatic Mission in 
Washington. Both were shut-
tered by the Trump adminis-
tration.
The bill also calls for the 
scrapping of the 1987 Anti-
Terrorism Act, which deems 
the PLO and its affiliates a ter-
ror organization.
To get around the hurdle, 
the legislation says the U.S. 
should encourage the P.A. to 
reform its so-called “pay-to-
slay” practice of providing 
regular stipends to security 
prisoners and families of dead 
terrorists through its welfare 
program.
Levin unveiled the legisla-
tion at a Sept. 23 press confer-
ence on the steps of Capitol 

Hill where he was joined by 
several of his bill’s cosponsors 
— Reps. Jan Schakowsky of 
Illinois, Sara Jacobs and Alan 
Lowenthal of California, and 
Peter Welch of Vermont.

IRON DOME SUPPORT
All five of them said they 
supported a separate bill 
approved by the House later 
in the day to expand funding 
for Israel’s Iron Dome missile 
defense system. 
 The moderate Democrats 
who introduced the Iron 
Dome legislation are unlikely 
to return the favor though, and 
the Two-State Solution Act 
will most likely have a difficult 
time passing in Congress, due 
to its heavy criticism of Israeli 
actions in the West Bank.
During the press conference, 
Levin downplayed “excuses” 
commonly used by opponents 
to dismiss working toward 
a two-state solution, citing 
Hamas rule in Gaza, the P.A.’s 
lack of legitimacy or Prime 
Minister Naftali Bennett’s 
opposition to a Palestinian 
state. He dismissively referred 
to Bennett as a “gentleman 
that represents six seats in the 
Knesset.”
Levin rolled out his bill 
at the press conference with 
J Street, the liberal Jewish 
Middle East policy group that 
in recent years has endorsed 
some restrictions on U.S. 
assistance to Israel. Also 
joining him and speaking 
was Americans for Peace Now 
CEO Hadar Susskind, whose 
group espouses similar 
views. 

JACOB MAGID TIMES OF ISRAEL

Mark 
Mellman

