Democrat Congressmen are urging the US president to “persevere” with a two-state solution for Israeli and Palestine. The recent election in Israel saw a win by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised to never allow a Palestinian state.

A letter signed by 79 Democrat lawmakers called on President
Barack Obama “to persevere in reaffirming that the two-state
solution is still achievable.” Their concerns were raised by a
recent statement by Netanyahu dismissing Palestinians’ right for
a state of their own as long as he remains leader of the Jewish
state.

The letter sent to the White House on Tuesday praised Obama’s
support for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian issue
and urged him to remain resolute in his efforts, expressing
“strong reiteration of US support for this long-standing
policy.”

“As staunch supporters of Israel, we are firmly committed to
ensuring that it remains a secure and democratic homeland for the
Jewish people,” the letter stresses.

The letter from Democrat lawmakers became yet another episode of
the deepening divide within the American political establishment
over US-Israeli relations.

The rift between US and Israel is more based on a clash of
personalities rather than fundamental bilateral relations,
independent geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser told RT.

"There has definitely been a rift that has grown in the
personal relationship between Netanyahu and Obama; between the
Israeli regime that he leads and the Obama administration. Part
of that has to do with personalities and belligerent rhetoric
that Netanyahu employed all throughout the campaign... But at the
larger level this remains a personal question," Draitser
said, adding that as the US moves into an election in 2016, the
prospective candidates might distance themselves from Obama and
move "towards a conciliatory tone with Israel and the
maintenance of that special relationship."

The divide between Republicans and the Democrats of the Obama
administration reached unprecedented levels in January, when the
Israeli PM accepted an invitation from neocon lawmakers to give a
speech in Congress - without the Obama administration’s consent.

In early March a group of US Republican senators wrote an open
letter to Iran’s leaders suggesting that any decision based on
nuclear negotiations with the current government and signed by
President Obama could be revoked after he leaves office in early
2017.

Vice-President Joe Biden denounced the letter from GOP senators
in the strongest terms, saying "The decision to undercut our
president and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as
a matter of principle.”

Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories has lasted for
nearly five decades and “must end,” White House Chief of
Staff Denis McDonough said in an address to the left-leaning
Jewish American lobby group J Street.

“Israel cannot maintain military control of another people
indefinitely,” he said. “An occupation that has lasted
for almost 50 years must end, and the Palestinian people must
have the right to live in and govern themselves in their own
sovereign state.”

The conflict in American establishment over the US-Israeli
relations is escalating at as American support for a two-state
solution in the Middle East is at a 20-year low, according to a
new poll.

Thirty-nine percent of Americans surveyed recently said they
support the creation of an independent Palestinian state on the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Washington Post-ABC News poll
released on Monday this week concluded. The figure is 7 percent
down from February 2014.

Meanwhile, Palestine has finally secured its long-awaited
membership of The Hague’s International Criminal Court, where the
ICC newcomer wants to see Tel Aviv on the stand for alleged war
crimes in Gaza.

As the US has been advocating Israel’s interests in all
international organizations for decades, the American
establishment is set to be dragged into the lawsuits that will
inevitably follow.