Clinton talks Israel-US relations at annual Saban Forum

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas at the COP21 World Climate Change Conference in France on November 30.

In the latest row, Israel condemned as “scandalous” on Sunday what it said was a suggestion by Wallstrom its forces had unlawfully killed Palestinians involved in a surge of street violence, and warned of a diplomatic rupture with Stockholm.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted angrily on Sunday, telling his Cabinet that “Israel will not be a binational state” and blaming the Palestinians for the failure of peace efforts.

Israeli forces have killed 102 Palestinians since October – 63 of those people were identified as assailants while most of the others died in clashes with police or troops.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set off an uproar in Israel on Sunday after warning that the country, through its continued West Bank occupation, will become a “binational state”. A soldier stepping off a nearby bus opened fire and killed the man, police said. “Would millions of Palestinians be given basic rights of Israeli citizens, including the right to vote?” Violence erupted over tensions at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and quickly escalated and spread. He said the alternative would have to be a “binational state” in which Jews and Palestinians live together in one state, ending Israel’s Jewish majority.

The Palestinian attacks, fuelled in part by strife over a contested Jerusalem shrine as well as a peacemaking process deadlocked since early 2014, have killed 19 Israelis and a US citizen.

Israel said the current spate of violence is due to incitement by Palestinian leaders over the Jerusalem holy site as well as videos encouraging violence spread on social media.

The Democratic presidential candidate and former secretary of state says a Palestinian leadership vacuum could provide an opening for IS to make inroads.

“But in order for there to be peace, the other side must decide that they also want peace, and unfortunately that is not what we are seeing”. Such Israelis imagine a future in which some version of the Islamic State group seizes control of the West Bank and launches daily attacks at Israel. Israelis who fear this scenario and see a future of internecine conflict, global economic boycotts and increasing isolation want a pullout now, from at least most of the West Bank, even without an agreement with the Palestinians.

Wallstrom has drawn censure from the rightist Israeli government before; over Sweden’s recognition of Palestinian statehood a year ago and, following last month’s gun and bomb rampage by Islamic State militants in Paris, when she described the Palestinians’ plight as a factor leading to radicalization.