The E1 debate is not just about West Bank construction. It is about security

Twenty-nine Democratic senators have demanded that Israel halt proposed construction in E1, the area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim. For advocates of Palestinian statehood, the issue is central because construction could sever the Ramallah-Bethlehem corridor and undermine the territorial continuity of a future Palestinian state.

The author accepts that building in E1 would be ill-timed. Israel’s most important ally, the United States, is already facing rising anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitic intimidation from both the Democratic Left and what the article calls the conspiratorial Tucker Carlson Right. Creating another confrontation with Washington, the author argues, would bring Israel little benefit.

But the article says Washington is asking the wrong question. The senators’ statement says the United States must support a two-state solution that provides lasting peace and security for Israel and a future Palestinian state, and warns that E1 development could seriously damage that prospect. The author responds that the debate should focus on whether Israel could safely give up security control of the corridor.

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The United States must remain committed to a two-state solution that delivers lasting peace and security for both the Jewish, democratic State of Israel and for a future Palestinian state.

The article places E1 within a larger dispute over Palestinian statehood. It says the obstacles began before E1, with Arab rejection of two states in 1948 and later refusals in 1967, 2000, 2001 and 2007-08. The last proposal, it says, offered Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza and nearly all the West Bank, with a capital in east Jerusalem. After October 7, the author argues, the question of whether Palestinian society can accept a permanent Jewish state between the river and the sea can no longer be treated as theoretical.

Highway 1 runs east from Jerusalem past Ma’aleh Adumim and E1 toward the Jordan Valley. The author describes it as an essential artery linking Israel’s coastal population centers with its eastern frontier and as a route for rapidly moving troops, weapons and supplies toward the country’s longest border with Jordan. The article adds that Jordan’s long-term stability cannot be assumed, even though its Hashemite monarchy remains an important U.S. and Israeli security partner and faces economic, demographic and Islamist pressures.

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Development in E1 would seriously jeopardize the prospects for a Palestinian state.