Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to press Israel to take unilateral measures to make possible a Palestinian state.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work internally to try to think about, if we are in a period without negotiations, how we can still generate some direction and progress . . .  on the ground to reinforce that pathway toward a two-state solution even if negotiations will have to wait for some later period,” U.S. ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro said.

In a conference call on Dec. 6, Shapiro and senior administration officials outlined the agenda of the Nov. 9 meeting between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report by Middle East Newsline.

Aides said Obama wants Israel to take measures on such issues as withdrawal from the West Bank, Palestinian control over Jerusalem and a Jewish housing freeze that could prepare for an eventual Palestinian state.

The aides said the president has discounted the prospect of renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2016.

The White House officials said Obama would instead press Netanyahu to take measures that would preserve the option of a formal Israeli-PA agreement on a Palestinian
state.

“There will not be a comprehensive final status agreement in the remainder of his [Obama’s] term, and there likely may not even be meaningful negotiations between the two sides,” National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East, Robert Malley, said.

“Given that reality, which is a new one, how does the prime minister himself see Israel going forward, given its own interests in stabilizing the situation in preventing the emergence of a one-state solution.”

“So what ideas is he going to be putting through to the president so they can discuss what can be done in the absence of negotiations between the parties,” Malley said.

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