The Free World has been faced with a conundrum: how to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank while making clear that it does not delegitimize Israel’s existence per se. The E.U.’s new guidelines forbiding financing or supporting Israeli Institutions in the West Bank may send the right message: the West stands behind Israel, but will never accept the occupation.
While Israel’s current government includes two parties—Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livini’s Hatnu’a—that are committed to the two-state solution, the Likud itself is nowadays largely composed of people who expressly reject the two-state solution. They are taking over the party’s central institutions, and it is doubtful that Benjamin Netanyahu could genuinely move towards a two state solution, even if he wanted to, without losing his own party.