By Tovah Lazaroff

(FEBRUARY 18, 2024 / JERUSALEM POST) U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew dismissed reports about potential U.S. unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood, as he underscored that such a future state would be demilitarized.

“We have never said that was our policy,” Lew told the Conference of Presidents at the Museum of Torrance Jerusalem, when quizzed about the matter on Sunday night.

“Our policy is that there should be an over-the-horizon process” toward Palestinian statehood that involved Israel, said Lew, who took up his post in October and rarely makes public addresses.

He advocated for the advancement of a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia that would include a two-state option.

“Now is a moment in time where there is a real possibility that by engaging with normalization negotiations with Saudi Arabia and engaging in a process of of working to reform, revamp and revitalize the Palestinian Authority, that there could be a demilitarized Palestinian state that lives side by side” with Israel, Lew said.

“If the value of having normalization” with Saudi Arabia is as important as I think it is,” it will force a conversation in Israel about this, Lew said.

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and can be viewed here.