Republican Sen Cotton slams Biden’s ‘push for two-state solution’ amid Gaza War

Cotton calls for expansion of Abraham Accords and ties to Saudi Arabia

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Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton slammed U.S. President Joe Biden for his efforts to advance a two-state solution amid Israel’s intense fight against the Hamas terrorist organization.

Speaking at the MEAD conference in Washington, D.C., Cotton also criticized Biden’s overall approach to the conflict.

“It doesn’t help that President Biden continues to push a rigid timeline for a two-state solution while Israel is at war with Hamas, which controls most of the territory that would form one of those states. This is a situation Israel cannot accept,” said Cotton.

“One side is trying to defend itself and live in peace, while the other side slaughters babies, rapes women, and murders,” Cotton said, referring to Hamas.

The Biden administration has been pushing for a two-state solution as part of negotiations aimed not only at establishing a truce in the Gaza War but also to reach a comprehensive peace in the region, potentially including agreements with Saudi Arabia.

An “irreversible timeline for a two-state solution,” which has been brought up by U.S. officials as a possible Israeli concession, would only cause the Palestinian leadership, regardless of whether it is Hamas, Fatah or another faction, “to be more intransigent, to make more demands and be more violent," Cotton said, according to the Jewish Insider.

In February, the Israeli government unanimously rejected unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by other nations, following reports that the United States was weighing such a move to pressure Israel in the hostage release negotiations with Hamas.

Throughout the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times stridently rejected the notion of discussing a Palestinian State while the war against Hamas was still going on.

The Republican senator also noted that he disagrees with the Biden administration's strategy of tying the two-state solution to Saudi normalization.

“It’s not a tenable situation for Israel to accept, and frankly, I’m not sure it’s one that Saudi Arabia would really insist upon itself,” Cotton said. “They don’t view that – as far as I can tell – as the critical issue for them in the region. The critical issue, as it is for almost every nation, is Iran and Iran’s predatory behavior.”

Cotton emphasized the critical role of the Saudi Kingdom as an ally and key partner in a regional alliance aimed at countering the influence of the Iranian regime.

“Expanding the Abraham Accords and securing a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel would greatly benefit the United States,” he Cotton.

Despite supporting the diplomatic move, Saudi Arabia wasn’t part of the Abraham Accords.

The Biden administration prioritized the signing of a normalization deal between Israel and the Saudi Kingdom as one of its main foreign policy objectives in the months leading up to Oct. 7.

“Israel has been a cornerstone of Middle Eastern security for decades, and Saudi Arabia has been a partner since World War II. Saudi Arabia is crucial to building a regional alliance against Iran,” Cotton noted.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S., Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, joined an off-the-record panel discussion at the MEAD conference, alongside the Moroccan and Bahraini ambassadors.

While Al Saud’s public participation in an event featuring numerous Israeli officials was already noteworthy, several Israeli media outlets also described her comments as “inspiring” and “optimistic.”

An unnamed senior Israeli official told media outlets that a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia might still be achieved during Biden’s so-called “lame-duck” period, after the election and before the inauguration of a new American president.