UN Official Warns of Generations of Israeli-Palestinian Violence

United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said that a two-state solution for an independent Palestinian state next to Israel is further away than ever, and there is a risk of generations of violence and radicalism unless leaders on both sides act. The pessimistic comments were the first public statements since the publication on July 1 of a report by the Quartet of Middle East mediators blaming both Israel and the Palestinians for the impasse. “(The two-state solution) is perhaps the furthest away it’s ever been, and in fact it is really worse than that—it is slipping away as we speak,” Mladenov told the Reuters News Agency in an interview, citing Israeli settlement building and Palestinian violence and incitement as among the most troubling obstacles.
“It’s time for the international community and the leadership on both sides to wake up.” Since October, a wave of Palestinian stabbings and shootings have killed at least 33 Israelis and two visiting Americans. Israel has killed at least 202 Palestinians, 137 of whom it said were assailants. Others were killed during clashes and protests. Mladenov’s comments come as some in Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s party are calling on Israel to annex Area C, 60 percent of the West Bank that is under complete Israeli control.