Conservative movement softens support for two-state solution

By Arno Rosenfeld
April 8, 2025

This spring’s elections to the World Zionist Congress, with the the Israel-Hamas war still simmering, have exposed an erosion in support for a Palestinian state among the Conservative and Reform movements, which together represent about half of American Jews.

Polls show that a majority of Jews across the U.S. have backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades, with a survey last spring putting that support at 61%. The strongest endorsement has always come from those affiliated with these two movements, whose leaders spent decades forcefully advocating for the diplomatic resolution.

But the Conservative movement has removed explicit references to “two states” in its platform, while the Reform movement has reduced the emphasis on it. And during two debates in recent days, candidates from both slates have tempered their past backing of a land for peace deal.

The Reform slate, known as ARZA, still mentions support for a Palestinian state, but no longer highlights the prominent pledge found in its last platform, five years ago,to fund initiatives for “two-state solution and a long-term peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”

MERCAZ, the Conservative slate, stated in its materials a decade ago that voting for it was “a vote of support for a two-state solution — one Jewish and one Palestinian Arab.” Now, the movement describes a more vague commitment to “an Israel integrated within the region and at peace with all its neighbors, including the Palestinians.”

Rabbi Hillel Skolnik, president of MERCAZ, declined to say in a debate Sunday night hosted by eJewishPhilanthropywhether the Conservative movement continued to support a two-state solution to the Israeli -Palestinian conflict. “We’re a big tent,” said Skolnik, who is also the rabbi of Tifereth Israel in Columbus, Ohio. His remarks were reported Monday by eJewishPhilanthropy.

When I followed up with the Conservative movement to ask whether it still supported two states for two peoples, a spokesperson said: “There is no change in policy.”

Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, who heads the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, also sent a joint statement with Skolnik.

“We continue to believe that Israelis and Palestinians should remain open to the possibility of a two-state paradigm,” they said. “At the same time, we acknowledge the significant challenges that must be addressed to move toward that reality.”

Rabbi Josh Weinberg, the head of ARZA, said in a second World Zionist Congress debate Monday night that the Reform movement continued to support a two-state solution but was skeptical it would happen in the near future. “Do I think a two-state solution is going to happen tomorrow? I don’t. Do I have a better solution? Also, I don’t,” he said.

Weinberg told me in an email that the Union for Reform Judaism, the main arm of the movement, has continued to publicly advocate for a two-state solution, including in a February statement. In addition to the ARZA platform supporting a “two-state outcome,” he noted, the movement it also opposes Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and Jewish settlement in Gaza.

Flagging support for peace deal

The shift in language is an indication of how the two-state solution — the framework for solving the conflict most diplomats and politicians have relied on since the 1990s — has fallen out of favor among both Israelis and some United States government officials in recent years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, saying it would compromise Israel’s security.

And while a majority of American Jews disagree — 60% of Conservative Jews said in a 2021 survey that Israel could co-exist peacefully alongside a Palestinian state, for example — the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel has caused some to adopt a more hawkish position.

In Israel itself, support for two states has dropped dramatically since the war. In one recent poll, 19% of Israeli Jews said they thought the country could peacefully exist alongside a Palestinian state, down from nearly 50% in 2013.

A recent blog post on MERCAZ’s website was headlined “Prerequisites for a two-state solution are not present,” and laid most of the blame on the failures of Palestinian leadership.

But a two-state solution continues to be widely recognized as the only solution to the conflict that would allow Israel to retain a Jewish majority without formally instituting a system of apartheid.

“We can push for the annexation and rule over millions of people who don’t want to be under our rule – or, or, we can separate ourselves and create our own state and hopefully they’ll also have a Palestinian democratic state at some point,” Weinberg said during Monday night’s debate.

And while Skolnik said that members of his congregation are divided on a two-state solution, his movement’s vision remained “a safe and secure state of Israel that has to understand and engage in the reality that its neighbors exist and continue to exist and we must find a way to coexist with them.”

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