Israel-Palestinian peace: One-state, two-state solutions explained

Quote "Among the many problems are the likely disapproval of that approach by most of the world community, and whether Palestinians would be afforded full citizen rights and eventually outnumber Jewish Israelis or be consigned to second-class status as occurred in South Africa during Apartheid."unquote

One-state solution

In recent years, some politicians and political commentators representing the right wing of Israeli politics have advocated annexing the West Bank and granting its Palestinian population Israeli citizenship while maintaining Israel's current status as a Jwqiah State with recognized minorities. In 2013, Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely argued that Jordan was originally created as the Arab state in the British Mandate of Palestine and that Israel should annex the West Bank as a historic part of the Land of Israel. Naftall Bennett, leader of the Jewush Home party, included in many Likud -led coalitions, argues for the annexation of Zone C of the West Bank  Zone C, agreed upon as part of the Oslo Accords, comprises about 60% of West Bank land and is currently under Israeli military control

In a 2014 book The Israeli Solution, The Jerusalem Post  columnist Caroline Glick challenged the census statistics provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics  (PCBS) and argued that the bureau had vastly over-inflated the Palestinian population of the West Bank by 1.34 million and that PCBS statistics and predictions are unreliable. According to a Begin - Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) study, the 2004 Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza stood at 2.5 million and not the 3.8 million claimed by the Palestinians. According to Glick, the 1997 PCBS survey, used as the basis for later studies, inflated numbers by including over three hundred thousand Palestinians living abroad and by double-counting over two hundred thousand Jerusalem Arabs already included in Israel’s population survey. Further, Glick says later PCBS surveys reflect the predictions of the 1997 PCBS survey, reporting unrealized birth forecasts, including assumptions of large Palestinian immigration that never occurred.

Based on this study, Glick argued that annexation of the West Bank would only add 1.4 million Palestinians to the population of Israel. She argued that a one-state solution with a Jewish majority and a political system rooted in Jewish values was the best way to guarantee the protection of democratic values and the rights of all minorities.

The demographic statistics from the PCBS are backed by Arnon Softer and quite similar to official Israeli figures. Sergio Della Pergota  gives a figure of 5,698,500 Arabs living in Israel and the Palestinian territories, while the core Jewish population stands at 6,103,200.

Proposals from the Israeli right for a one-state solution tend to avoid advocating the annexation of the Gaza Strip, due to its large and generally hostile Palestinian population and lack of any Israeli settlements.

Arguments for and against

Support among Israeli Jews, and Jews generally, for a one-state solution is very low.^[4] Israelis see a one-state solution as a demographic threat that would overturn the prevailing Jewish majority within Israel.^[38][39]

In favour

A one-state solution is generally endorsed by Israeli Arabs. Many are becoming nervous that a two-state solution would result in official pressures for them to move into a Palestinian state in the West Bank and/or Gaza Strip and so lose their homes and access to their communities, businesses and cities inside Israel.^{[citation needed]} Some Israeli government spokespeople have also proposed that Palestinian-majority areas of Israel, such as the area around Umm el-Fahm, be annexed to the new Palestinian state. As this measure would cut these areas off permanently from the rest of Israel's territory, including the coastal cities and other Palestinian towns and villages, Palestinians view this with alarm. Many Palestinian citizens of Israel would therefore prefer a one-state solution because this would allow them to sustain their Israeli citizenship.^[40]

Hamas has at times ruled out a two state solution, and at other times endorsed the possibility of a two-state solution.^[41][42] Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Al-Zahar has been cited saying he "did not rule out the possibility of having Jews, Muslims and Christians living under the sovereignty of an Islamic state."^[43] Islamic Jihad for its part rejects a two state solution. An Islamic Jihad leader Khalid al-Batsh stated that "The idea cannot be accepted and we believe that the entire Palestine is Arab and Islamic land and belongs to the Palestinian nation."^[44]

A multi-option poll by Near East Consulting (NEC) in November 2007 found the bi-national state to be less popular than either "two states for two people" or "a Palestinian state on all historic Palestine" with only 13.4% of respondents supporting a binational solution.^[45] However, in February 2007, NEC found that around 70% of Palestinian respondents backed the idea when given a straight choice of either supporting or opposing "a one-state solution in historic Palestine where Muslims, Christians and Jews have equal rights and responsibilities".^[46] In March 2010, a survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that Palestinian support had risen to 29 percent.^[47] In April 2010, a poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre also found that Palestinian support for a "bi-national" solution had jumped from 20.6 percent in June 2009 to 33.8 percent.^[48] If this support for a bi-national state is combined with the finding that 9.8 percent of Palestinian respondents favour a "Palestinian state" in "all of historic Palestine", this poll suggested about equal Palestinian support for a two-state and one-state solution in mid-2010.^[47][48] In 2011, a poll by Stanley Greenberg and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion and sponsored by the Israel Project revealed that 61% of Palestinians reject a two state solution, while 34% said they accepted it.^[49] 66% said the Palestinians’ real goal should be to start with a two-state solution but then move to it all being one Palestinian state.

Some Israeli Jews and Palestinians who oppose a one-state solution have nevertheless come to believe that it may come to pass.^[4] Israeli Prime Minister Olmert argued, in a 2007 interview with the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, that without a two-state agreement Israel would face "a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights" in which case "Israel [would be] finished".^[26] This echoes comments made in 2004 by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, who said that if Israel failed to conclude an agreement with the Palestinians, that the Palestinians would pursue a single, bi-national state.^[50] In November 2009, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat proposed the adoption of the one-state solution if Israel did not halt settlement construction: "[Palestinians must] refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals... It is very serious. This is the moment of truth for us."^[51]

Today, the proponents for the one-state solution include Palestinian author Ali Abunimah, Palestinian writer and political scientist Abdalhadi Alijla, Palestinian-American producer Jamal Dajani, Palestinian lawyer Michael Tarazi,^[52] American-Israeli anthropologist Jeff Halper, Israeli writer Dan Gavron,^[53] Palestinian-American law professor George Bisharat,^[54] American-Lebanese academic Saree Makdisi,^[55] and Israeli journalist Gideon Levy.^[56][57] Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya was also a prominent proponent (see also Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Isratin proposal).^[1][58] The expansion of the Israeli Settler movement, especially in the West Bank, has been given as one rationale for bi-nationalism and the increased infeasibility of the two-state alternative:

"Support for one state is hardly a radical idea; it is simply the recognition of the uncomfortable reality that Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories already function as a single state. They share the same aquifers, the same highway network, the same electricity grid and the same international borders... The one-state solution... neither destroys the Jewish character of the Holy Land nor negates the Jewish historical and religious attachment (although it would destroy the superior status of Jews in that state). Rather, it affirms that the Holy Land has an equal Christian and Muslim character. For those who believe in equality, this is a good thing."-Michael Tarazi^[59]

They advocate a secular and democratic state while still maintaining a Jewish presence and culture in the region.^[38][60] They concede that this alternative will erode the dream of Jewish supremacy in terms of governance in the long run.^[38]

Some Israeli politicians, including former defense minister Moshe Arens,^[61] current President Reuven Rivlin, and the Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely^[62] and Uri Ariel^[63] have voiced support for a one-state solution, rather than divide the West Bank in a two-state solution.^[64]

In September 2011, Congressman Joe Walsh and 30 co-sponsors introduced a motion in the United States House of Representatives supporting Israel's right to annex the Palestinian territories if the Palestinian National Authority continues to push for a vote at the United Nations.^[65] The plan would give Palestinians only "limited voting power" in the merged country and those who disagreed with annexation would be free to leave. Robert Wright described this plan as "apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing."^[66]

Rashid Khalidi wrote in 2011 that the one-state solution was already a reality, in that “there is only one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, in which there are two or three levels of citizenship or non-citizenship within the borders of that one state that exerts total control.” Khalidi further argued that the "peace process" had been extinguished by ongoing Israeli settlement construction, and anyone who still believed it could result in an equitable two-state solution should have his "head examined".^[67]

Polls show that if the two-state solution were taken off the table, a strong majority of Americans would favor a one-state solution in which Jews and Arabs would have equal citizenship and rights. Most Americans also view democracy as more important than Israel's Jewishness

Against

Critics argue that it would make Israeli Jews an ethnic minority in the only Jewish country. The high total fertility rate among Palestinians accompanied by a return of Palestinian refugees, would quickly render Jews a minority, according to Sergio DellaPergola, an Israeli demographer and statistician.

Critics have also argued that Jews, like any other nation, have the right to self-determination, and that due to still existing antisemitism, there is a need for a Jewish national home. Ethnically homogeneous nation-states are common around the world, including in Europe. They also argue that most of the Arab world is composed of entirely Arab and Muslim states, with many countries not granting equality for ethnic or religious minorities.

Critics argue that a one-state solution is supported by "anti-Israel" advocates and "pro-terrorist" supporters who seek Israel's destruction, and view this as a way to achieve their goal. In an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post about the March 2012 Harvard University's Kennedy School students conference on "Israel/Palestine and the One State Solution", Dan Diker, the Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress writes that:

"Keynote presenters include Ali Abunimah, author of the Israel-bashing online “Electronic Intifada” and an enthusiastic Hamas supporter who, as some may remember, publicly branded former prime minister Ehud Olmert as a murderer guilty of war crimes and prevented him from speaking at a 2009 University of Chicago forum.

The conference also features Dianna Buttu, former legal advisor for the PLO and another Hamas supporter who, as Middle East scholar Richard Cravatts noted recently, “denied that thousands of Hamas rockets fired from Gaza into Israel actually had warheads on them, unlike Israeli weaponry.”

The Reut Institute expands on these concerns of many Israeli Jews and says that a one-state scenario without any institutional safeguards would negate Israel's status as a homeland for the Jewish people. When proposed as a political solution by non-Israelis, the assumption is that the idea is probably being put forward by those who are politically motivated to harm Israel and, by extension, Israeli Jews. They argue that the absorption of millions of Palestinians, along with a right of return for Palestinian refugees, and the generally high birthrate among Palestinians would quickly render Jews an ethnic minority and eliminate their rights to self-determination.

One major argument against the one-state solution is that it would endanger the safety of the Jewish minority, because it would require assimilation with what critics fear would be an extremely hostile Muslim ruling majority. In particular, Jeffrey Goldberg points to a 2000 Haaretz interview with Edward Said, whom he describes as "one of the intellectual fathers of one-statism". When asked whether he thought a Jewish minority would be treated fairly in a binational state, Said replied that "it worries me a great deal. The question of what is going to be the fate of the Jews is very difficult for me. I really don't know." Students of the Middle East, including New Historian Benny Morris, have argued that the one-state solution is not viable because of Arab unwillingness to accept a Jewish national presence in the Middle East. Morris has dismissed claims that a binational state would be a secular democratic state and argues it would instead be an authoritarian, fundamentalist state with a persecuted Jewish minority, citing the racism and persecution minorities face throughout the Arab and Muslim world, and in particular, the fact that Jews in Islamic societies were historically treated as second-class citizens and subject to pogroms and discrimination. In his book One State, Two States, he wrote "What Muslim Arab society in the modern age has treated Christians, Jews, pagans, Buddhists, and Hindus with tolerance and as equals? Why should anyone believe that Palestinian Muslim Arabs would behave any differently"? Pointing to specific examples of violence by Palestinian Muslims towards Palestinian Christians, Morris writes that "Western liberals like or pretend to view Palestinian Arabs, indeed all Arabs, as Scandinavians, and refuse to recognize that peoples, for good historical, cultural, and social reasons are different and behave differently in similar or identical sets of circumstances." Morris notes the differences between Israeli Jewish society, which remains largely Westernized and secular, and Palestinian and Israeli-Arab society, which according to Morris is increasingly Islamic and fundamentalist, with secularism in decline. He also pointed to Hamas' 2007 takeover of Gaza, during which Fatah prisoners were shot in the knees and thrown off buildings, and the regular honor killings of women that permeate Palestinian and Israeli-Arab society, as evidence that Palestinian Muslims have no respect for Western values. He thus claimed that "the mindset and basic values of Israeli Jewish society and Palestinian Muslim society are so different and mutually exclusive as to render a vision of binational statehood tenable only in the most disconnected and unrealistic of minds." He wrote that the goal of a "secular democratic Palestine" was invented to appeal to Westerners, and that while a few supporters of the one-state solution may honestly believe in such an outcome, the realities of Palestinian society mean that "the phrase objectively serves merely as camouflage for the goal of a Muslim Arab–dominated polity to replace Israel." Morris argued that should a binational state ever emerge, it would likely result in the mass emigration of Israeli Jews seeking to escape the "stifling darkness, intolerance, authoritarianism, and insularity of the Arab world and its treatment of minority populations", with only those incapable of finding new host countries to resettle in and Ultra-Orthodox Jews remaining behind.^[82] It has even been argued that Jews would face the threat of genocide. Writing on Arutz Sheva, Steven Plaut referred to the one-state solution as the "Rwanda Solution", and wrote that the implementation of a one-state solution in which a Palestinian majority would rule over a Jewish minority would eventually lead to a "new Holocaust".^[83] Morris argued that while the Palestinians would have few moral inhibitions over the destruction of Israeli-Jewish society through mass murder or expulsion, fear of international intervention would probably stymie such an outcome.^[82]

Some critics^[84] argue that unification cannot happen without damaging or destroying Israel's democracy. Most Israeli Jews as well as Israeli Druze, some Israeli Bedouin, many Israeli Christian Arabs and even some Israeli Muslim Arabs fear the consequences of amalgamation with the mostly Muslim Palestinian population in the occupied territories, which they perceive as more religious and conservative. (Israeli Druze and Bedouin serve in the Israel Defense Forces and there are sometimes rifts between these groups and Palestinians).^[85] One poll found that, in a future Palestinian state, 23% of Palestinians want civil law only, 35% want both Islamic and civil law, and 38% want Islamic law only.^[86] This negative view of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza prompts some critics to argue that the existing level of rights and equality for all Israeli citizens would be put in jeopardy with unification.^[87] Benny Morris echoes these claims, arguing that Palestinian Muslims, who would become the ruling majority in any such state, are deeply religious and do not have any tradition of democratic governance.

Imagining what might ensue with unification, some critics^[88] of the one-state model believe that rather than ending the Arab-Israeli conflict, it would result in large-scale ethnic violence and possibly civil war, pointing to violence during the British Mandate, such as in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936–39 as examples. In this view, violence between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews is inevitable and can only be forestalled by partition. These critics also cite the 1937 Peel Commission, which recommended partition as the only means of ending the ongoing conflict.^[89] Critics also cite bi-national arrangements in Yugoslavia, Lebanon, and Pakistan, which failed and resulted in further internal conflicts. Similar criticisms appear in The Case for Peace.^[90] Writing in Haaretz, Nehemia Shtrasler cited numerous examples of artificially-united multiethnic states or states with significant and politically-active minorities that have seen significant internal strife, including insurgencies and civil wars, including developed countries that have seen secessionist movements, and claimed that this was because of human nature:

Humans have always been tribal creatures. In ancient times, primitive man lived in a tribe that provided him with physical and nutritional security, and a sense of belonging. He could not have survived otherwise. Nowadays, the state provides all these things. It provides external protection by means of the military, and internal protection by means of the police. It also provides a security umbrella in terms of food and clothing and shelter in times of need. Most important, it satisfies that deep human need to belong to a group. The modern state has replaced the ancient tribe.

According to Shtrasler, any artificially-imposed binational state would quickly plunge into violence, as Jews and Palestinian Arabs would identify with their own communities rather than the state, and each community would seek to dominate the other:

From the moment it comes into being, the one state will suffer from endless civil war that entails killings, bombings and terror in the streets. It will be a ruthless war from hell. It will be waged over every government position, every public position, every legislator and minister, every budget allocation and tax assessment. It will be an unsustainable state, from which citizens will flee in fear and horror. For a person’s first loyalty is to his own tribe, to his own people, and not to the artificial state that has been imposed upon him.

Left-wing Israeli journalist Amos Elon argued that while Israel's settlement policy was pushing things in the direction of a one-state solution, should it ever come to pass, "the end result is more likely to resemble Zimbabwe than post-apartheid South Africa".

On the aftermath of any hypothetical implementation of a one-state solution, Gershom Gorenberg wrote: “Palestinians will demand the return of property lost in 1948 and perhaps the rebuilding of destroyed villages. Except for the drawing of borders, virtually every question that bedevils Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations will become a domestic problem setting the new political entity aflame.... Two nationalities who have desperately sought a political frame for cultural and social independence would wrestle over control of language, art, street names, and schools.” Gorenberg wrote that in the best case, the new state would be paralyzed by endless arguments, and in the worst case, constant disagreements would erupt into violence.

Gorenberg wrote that in addition to many of the problems with the one-state solution described above, the hypothetical state would collapse economically, as the Israeli Jewish intelligentsia would in all likelihood emigrate, writing that "financing development in majority-Palestinian areas and bringing Palestinians into Israel’s social welfare network would require Jews to pay higher taxes or receive fewer services. But the engine of the Israeli economy is high-tech, an entirely portable industry. Both individuals and companies will leave." As a result, the new binational state would be financially crippled.

In 2012, the UN envoy to the Middle East, Robert Serry, denounced Israeli settlement construction and said that unless the parties achieve a two-state solution, the region would move toward a "one-state reality" and further from a peaceful solution

The Two State Salution: Later

The articles put together here, is not mine, but was taken from different internet posts just to give an idea to members of our community, of the Solutions to an Israeli/Palestinian State, and why it is so difficult and taking quite a very long time.

Prashad supports the two state solution and a 60 foot wall between the two Semitic peoples to bring about peace. My arrival to that conclusion occured with my conversation with a Palestinian Jordanian a few years ago.  He said that a Palestinian conman sold his grandfather's 200 acres piece of land in Tel Aviv to the Jewish National Fund after World War Two for a few thousand dollars. That land today is worth millions upon millions of dollars. No one is going to give him that land back based on his claim.  But he is not settling for peace until his grandfather's 200 acreas of prime Tel aviv land is returned to the family. For me the only workable solution is the two state solution and a 60 foot wall.