NEW YORK (JNS) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is widely touted as a potential Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 2024 election, wrote as a college student that he believed peace between Israel and Arabs was “virtually impossible” and “will never come,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Friday.
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Writing in the University of Rochester’s Campus Times newspaper shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Shapiro, then 20, wrote that he was skeptical of the peace plan in an op-ed titled “Peace not possible.”
“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” he wrote. “They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States.”
“They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a homeland of their own,” he added. “The Palestinians will not be satisfied with only Gaza and Jericho, they will demand more, such as Jerusalem, the demands will turn violent and Israel will be in a similar position of having to swap land for ‘peace.’”
Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro, told the Inquirer that Shapiro’s views on Israel-Palestine have since changed and that he supports a two-state solution.
“Governor Shapiro has built close, meaningful, informative relationships with many Muslim-American, Arab-American, Palestinian Christian and Jewish community leaders all across Pennsylvania,” Bonder told the paper.
“The governor greatly values their perspectives and the experiences he has learned from over the years—and as a result, as with many issues, his views on the Middle East have evolved into the position he holds today,” the spokesman said.
Shapiro further distanced himself from the op-ed at a press conference on Friday.
“I was 20,” Shapiro told reporters. “I have said for years, years before Oct. 7, that I favor a two-state solution—Israelis and Palestinians living peacefully side-by-side, being able to determine their own futures and their own destiny.”
Shapiro concluded the college op-ed by noting that he is “a Jew and a past volunteer in the Israeli army.” His short biography at the end of the op-ed notes that he “spent five months studying in Israel and volunteered in the Israeli army.”
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In response to a request for clarification about the extent and nature of his service in Israel, Bonder told JNS that Shapiro volunteered in Israel while he was a student at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in the Philadelphia suburbs.
“While he was in high school, Josh Shapiro was required to do a service project, which he and several classmates completed through a program that took them to a kibbutz in Israel where he worked on a farm and at a fishery,” Bonder told JNS. “The program also included volunteering on service projects on an Israeli army base.”
“At no time was he engaged in any military activities,” Bonder added.
As yidin the last thing we need is a Jewish president or vice president.
The Yid who feels he has to bend over backwards to prove he is not partial to his own is a dangerous person to be in a position of power. Better the philo-Jewish gentile.
Ask him what changed on the pali side in the last 30 years that changes his op-ed.
He cares about power not israel the writing is literally on the wall. Ask yourself who would ever want to be vice president to the person who compares the idf to hamas and called hamas supporters passionate. Not someone pro israel.
Get lost Shapiro !! We all know that Harris was installed by the crooked media .
No Shapiro !
As a student, he could speak the truth, however, as a politician, he hast to pander to no-talent Kamala , and the extreme woke left wing of his party.
“politics is the world’s second oldest profession, very closely related to the first”.
He forced closing of factories in Pennsylvania, advised by Bloomberg’s anti energy, pro ecology goons. He talks mainstream but lapping at the WOKE crowd.
nearly all jews in politics are more anti israel than normal non-frum ones
Clear evidence that becoming a Democrat makes you stupider.
If she picks him, the Moslems will demonstrate wherever he rallies, he’ll be forced to take sides. On whose side will he be ? Go ahead Kamala, choose him and let all heck break loose.
BTW, did u see how she rambled incoherently at the airport when she and Joe welcomed the released people? Wow !
I say it’s a bogus trial balloon. I will go on the record predicting he will not be selected.
I hope he is not chosen. Who wants a Jew to be a part of Kamala’s left wing campaign.
In other words,he started off life with the right hashkafa and with a clear thinking mind with certain topics and then became corrupted as he got older and hung around his fellow liberal college graduates; on top of not having a solid Jewish education probably also contributed to his twisted thinking.
If peace is not possible, then endless war is inevitable.
power corrupts…
Then Shapiro was able to be objective.
Politics made his subjective.
I don’t know who in the Middle East would be offended by this thesis. The Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank will be the first to tell you that he is right, that a two state solution is not going to solve any problems because they want to rid the land of Jews completely.
I would NOT vote for him nor Camel ah, but people do change their minds.
He was right back then and plain as day today
Don’t worry, Kamala won’t pick Shapiro, the Dems are forbidding her to because he is Jewish. How accepting they are.
A guy serving as VP to a female President?? The world we live in today. What a loser. And they’re calling Trump and JD Vance weird?? Lol.
Gov Shapiro is too good to be associated with Kamal Harris.