As it turns 80 in 2025, the United Nations can mark the occasion by ensuring a lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East and welcoming the State of Palestine as the 194th UN Member State. The upcoming United Nations Palestine Conference, scheduled for June 2025, can be a turning point – a decisive, irreversible path to peace in the Middle East. The Trump administration would greatly serve America’s and the world’s interests by supporting the two-state solution and a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement at the June meeting in New York.
Amid Israel’s shocking brutality in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, a small window of hope has nevertheless emerged. Almost the entire world has rallied around the two-state solution as the key to regional peace. This means that a comprehensive deal is now within reach.
The UN General Assembly recently overwhelmingly adopted a potentially transformative resolution (PDF). The United Nations General Assembly calls for an end to the illegal occupation of Israel in 1967 and reiterates its unwavering support for the two-state solution. Most importantly, the resolution presented a roadmap for the establishment of a Palestinian state at the High-level International Conference (PDF) to be held at the United Nations in June 2025.
Consider how long the Palestinians and the world have waited for this moment. In 1947, the United Nations assumed responsibility for dealing with the Palestinian issue for the first time. With Resolution 181 (PDF), the UN General Assembly proposed the division of Mandatory Palestine into two independent states – one Jewish and one Arab. Unfortunately, the proposed division was neither fair nor agreed between the parties. It gave Palestinians 44 percent of the land, even though they made up 67 percent of the population. But before the plan could be revised and settled peacefully, Zionist terrorist groups began the ethnic expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, the so-called Nakba, or catastrophe of the Palestinian people.
After Israel declared its unilateral independence and defeated its Arab neighbors in war, a senior UN mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, tried to revive the two-state solution. Nevertheless, Bernadotte was assassinated by Lehi, a Zionist paramilitary organization. Israel signed the Lausanne Protocol in 1949, reviving the two-state solution under the auspices of the United Nations, but then blatantly disregarded it. What followed instead was Israel’s 75-year effort to deny Palestinians their right to a homeland.
For decades, the US government, led by the Israel lobby, ran a false negotiation process. These efforts were ostensibly about direct bilateral discussions between an occupying power and an occupied people, inherently disparate parties, in which Israel’s goal was always to reject a truly sovereign Palestinian state. At best, Israel offered “bantustans,” that is, small powerless enclaves of Palestinians living under Israeli control. The US-dominated process has continued since the mid-1970s, including the Camp David Accords of 1978, the Madrid Conference of 1991, the Oslo Accords of 1993-1995, the Camp David Summit of 2000, the Quartet -Roadmap for Peace of 2003 and the Annapolis Conference of 2007. In this process we have in the hall of mirrors the Israelis continually blocked a Palestinian state while the US “facilitators” continually blamed the Palestinians for their intransigence.
The Trump administration may choose to change the game at the upcoming UN conference – in America’s interest, in Israel’s long-term interest and security, and in the Middle East and world’s interest in peace. In fact, the US is the only remaining veto against a Palestinian state. Israel has no veto over a Palestinian state or over peace. Only the USA has this veto.
Yes, Prime Minister Netanyahu has ideas other than peace. He and his coalition continue to pursue one goal: preventing a state of Palestine by expanding Israel’s territorial conquests, which now include not only occupied Palestine but also parts of Lebanon and a growing portion of Syria.
A new U.S. foreign policy is needed in the Middle East – one that brings peace rather than endless war. As mandated by the International Court of Justice and as evidenced by the General Assembly, the G20 (PDF), the BRICS (PDF) and the League of Arab States (PDF), the overwhelming majority of the world supports the two-state solution.
The UN Palestine Conference is therefore an important and vital opportunity that could enable a comprehensive peace for the Middle East, including seven interrelated measures:
- An immediate UN-ordered ceasefire on all fronts of the conflict, including Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran, and the immediate release of hostages and prisoners of war in all territories.
- The admission of a sovereign state of Palestine as the 194th UN member state on June 4, 1967 borders its capital East Jerusalem; the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories occupied in 1967, while introducing UN-mandated international forces and security guarantees to protect all population groups.
- The protection of the territorial integrity and stability of Lebanon and Syria as well as the complete demilitarization of all non-state forces and the withdrawal of all foreign armies from their respective countries.
- The adoption of an updated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and the end of all economic and other sanctions against Iran.
- The termination of all claims or belligerent states, including the deleveraging and disarmament of belligerent non-state entities, as well as the respect and recognition of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of each state in the region (without excluding the possibility of subsequent events). territorial adjustments, security arrangements and cooperative forms of governance agreed upon by the sovereign parties).
- The establishment of regional peace and the normalization of diplomatic relations of all Arab and Islamic states with Israel.
- The establishment of a Sustainable Development Fund in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East to support the reconstruction, economic recovery and sustainable development of the region.
After far too many decades of violence and war, there is a chance for peace here and now. The United Nations’ push for comprehensive peace is our greatest hope and opportunity in decades.
