Netanyahu killed so-called two-state solution for Palestine: Carter

Former US president and peace activist Jimmy Carter says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has killed a so-called two-state solution for Israelis and the people of Palestine.

“These are the worst prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians for years. At this moment, there is zero chance of the two-state solution,” Carter said in an interview on Thursday, a day after he revealed that he has liver cancer.

Carter told Prospect Magazine that Netanyahu has adopted a “one-state solution,” adding that the United States had sadly “withdrawn” from making efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

The 90-year-old statesman, who travels around the world to support humanitarian causes, said Netanyahu has no intention of pursuing peace, adding, “[Palestinians] will never get equal rights [to Israeli Jews, in a one-state solution].”

Netanyahu “does not now and has never sincerely believed in a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine,” Carter added.

Carter, a Democrat from Georgia, was the 39th president of the United States. He was in office from 1977 to 1981.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2002 for his commitment to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts and his work for human rights and to promote democracy.

Carter has emerged in recent years as an outspoken critic of Israel for its oppression and brutality against the Palestinian people.

In his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, published in November 2006, Carter states that Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian lands have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement.

He declared that Israel's current policies in the occupied Palestinian territories constitute "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights."

According to late Iranian journalist and political analyst Hamid Golpira, Israeli officials want neither a one-state solution nor a two-state solution for Palestine, rather they want a no-state solution.

In an interview with Press TV in August 2013, Golpira said, “The two-state solution, if it could happen in a proper way, could even be an acceptable thing for the people who want a one-state solution in the future. They could see it… as one step toward a one-state solution.”

He added that what “some of the Israelis, especially people like Mr. Netanyahu, are presenting… neither is the one-state solution nor is the two-state solution. It is more of a no-state solution, meaning, they want no state for Palestine, or no viable state.”

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