Former US Vice President Joe Biden has expressed his opposition to Israel's plan to apply sovereignty to part of Judea and Samaria, as well as the Jordan Valley, saying that the move will "choke off any hope for peace," the Jewish Insider news site reported Tuesday.
Speaking to Jewish supporters at a fundraiser, Biden said, "I do not support annexation."
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According to Biden, unilateral moves by either Israel or the Palestinians will "undermine" any hopes for a negotiated two-state solution.
Biden also told supporters at the event that there was no justification for using US military aid to Israel as leverage and that the US had an obligation to "cover Israel's back."
The former vice president went on to say that the US could not "fully safeguard Israelis" unless there was peace and stated that Israel needed to stop "the threat of annexation and stop settlement activity, because it will choke off any hope for peace."
Biden also called on the Palestinian Authority to put a stop to incitement and condemn terrorist activity, and "acknowledge, flat-out, Israel's right to exist – period – as an independent Jewish state and guarantee the borders."
Biden said that if elected, he would support a law that would stop US aid to the PA if the Palestinians continued to pay salaries to families of terrorists.
He also blamed both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership for the impasse in peace negotiations, as well as the Trump administration, which he said has supported any action by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and had "been equivocating" about the need for a two-state solution.
