The Importance of a One State Democracy

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There is a point at which the aspiration for Palestinian statehood, under such limited circumstances, becomes less attractive to Palestinians. I think it's clear that settlement policy reduces the prospects of all these alternatives. But you could say, what if you look beyond the traditional two state paradigm? Is that the only solution you can come up with? Not one where there's no Israel, but one maybe there's a confederation, maybe something like Belgium, maybe something involving Jordan. What if, no, no, I'm finished. I'm going to use my 25 minutes. Thanks very much Tim.

Patriacide. Nationcide. Whatever you want to call it, that is what Israel is doing with its settlement policy: it is killing itself. If ever greater numbers of Jewish settlers are installed on land regarded by Palestinians as the basis for a state of their own, the possibility of a two-state solution grows ever more remote. Yet the single state alternative, involving annexation of the West Bank, would result in a country where Arabs vastly outnumber Jews and then you won’t have a one-state or a two-state solution: you’ll have a no-state solution. For those who love Israel and wish to preserve a democratic Jewish homeland, as much as for those who hate it, the settlements must stop. That’s what many left-wing Israelis and their friends say. But defenders of the settlements see things very differently. The two-state solution has long been a dead letter in their view: why stop building settlements in the name of a peace plan that is frankly unattainable? Whatever the eventual solution – it could even be a...

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