Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House on February 4, 2025. A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict remains an elusive if worthwhile goal of US foreign policy.  (Shutterstock/Noamgalai)

Five Unlikely Things that Need to Happen for Palestinian Statehood to Be Possible

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A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict could still be reachable in the wake of the Iran War.

President Donald Trump wants Saudi Arabia and other Middle East nations to join the 2020 Abraham Accords—essentially formal recognition of Israel—as a component of any US-Israeli-Iran peace agreement. Saudi Arabia shows no interest, having long insisted on a clear roadmap to Palestinian statehood as a condition for joining the accords. This throws a spotlight on one of the most important issues obscured by the Iran War: the long-standing search for a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Abraham Accords aside, this issue is certain to return with renewed urgency when the war in Iran eventually ends. It is worth thinking now about whether and how such an outcome might be achieved.

The goal of an independent Palestinian state living in peace with Israel has proven elusive to every American president who has attempted it. Even getting close has required a vexing combination of conditions coming into place simultaneously: leaders must hold ancient hatreds in check, manage complex internal politics, take risks by trusting the other side, and prepare for the near-certain bomb—literal or figurative—as the brass ring comes within reach. And yet, when world leaders are pressed for a remedy, they almost always default to the “two-state solution.” One reason is that the parties have sometimes come so close—most notably in 1999–2000, when........

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