There’s Hamas, the perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023 atrocity in Israel in which 1,200 people were killed. And on the Israeli side there are “extremists who don’t want to hear about the two-state solution,” she said, referring to the prime minister and members of his Cabinet. “We hear a lot of things that are unacceptable sometimes in the mouth of a responsible person who [is] in the lead of their country.”
Does she think Netanyahu wants peace? “To ask the question is to give an answer,” said Lahbib, who is Belgium’s EU commissioner. “I have some doubts. So far he was able to implement the ceasefire so let’s see what’s going to happen. But we all know that he was against the two-state solution … we used to say in French that ‘only idiots don’t change their minds.’”
The commissioner said she wasn’t calling the Israeli leader “an idiot,” but she’s clearly not a fan.
Asked if Israel would need to elect a new leadership that is ready to embrace the two-state solution, with a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, she replied: “That’s a very good question and these are the next steps, the crucial ones.” First must come a ceasefire, then urgently needed aid, “and then a future, give a horizon of hope for these people that are living now in a sea of rubble.”
It’s unusual for politicians to discuss the electoral politics of other countries. Israel is due to hold elections for its 120-member Knesset in October 2026, though some expect the vote to come sooner as Netanyahu no longer has a majority after his coalition partners walked out.
Netanyahu is known as the great survivor of Israeli politics and has vowed to stand for election again.