Jimmy Carter Urges President Obama To Recognize ‘Palestine’ Before Leaving Office
Image by Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter urged President Barack Obama to recognize a state of Palestine before leaving office.
Writing Monday in a New York Times op-ed, the former president said before Donald Trump assumes the presidency on Jan. 20, the United States should back a United Nations Security Council resolution that lays down the parameters of a two-state solution, including the rejection of Israeli settlement beyond the 1967 lines and guarantees for Israeli security.
The resolution would recognize the Palestinian entity as a state, as a number of other countries have already done.
Otherwise, said Carter, who brokered the 1978 Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel, the two-state solution is at risk.
“This is the best — now, perhaps, the only — means of countering the one-state reality that Israel is imposing on itself and the Palestinian people,” Carter wrote. “Recognition of Palestine and a new Security Council resolution are not radical new measures, but a natural outgrowth of America’s support for a two-state solution.”
Obama has indicated that he would be reluctant to advance any major new policies during his lame-duck period, although administration officials have left open the possibility that he may try to reinforce his commitment to a two-state outcome, perhaps in a speech.
Israel’s government rejects outside pressure to finalize a deal, while the Palestinians have said they would favor U.N. intervention.
A Security Council resolution would have the force of international law, even if Trump, as president, rescinds any recognition of a Palestinian state.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
