Editor's Letter

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One-State: A Nonstarter

L

et's put the kibosh on the practicality of a one-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a single
state including Israel and the West Bank, but not the
Gaza Strip. I can't imagine a thriving or even functional sce-
nario where Israelis and West Bank Palestinians are equal
citizens with full voting rights.
Israel's right wing, led by advocates
from Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi"
Netanyahu's Likud party, is floating the
notion, a new wrinkle on an old idea.
In a cogent analysis last week, JTRs
Leslie Susser discussed the new theory,
which would yield a new state of 5.8
million Jews and 3.8 million Arabs.
"The one-state solution previously
had been the preserve of the post-
Zionist left, Palestinian hardliners
and left-leaning European intellectu-
als who envisioned turning Israel .
proper, the West Bank and Gaza into a single state in which
the Palestinians soon would become the majority and
assume the reins of government:' Susser writes.
That "solution" never had a chance. For the vast majority
of Israelis, Susser writes, it "has been an anathema because
it seemed to spell the end of the Zionist dream of a sover-
eign Jewish state?' In short, add Gaza's 1.5 million residents
to the West Bank's head count, factor in the higher Arab
birth rate and yes, Arabs eventually would outnumber Jews
in that perceived new state of Jews and Palestinians.
But, as Susser explains, a West Bank-annexed-to-Israel,
even with Israel's 20-percent Arab population, would con-
stitute a 60-percent Jewish majority — "enough to preserve
an enlarged Israel as a Jewish majority state for the foresee-
able future?' The West Bank consists of Judea and Samaria
so there's a biblical tie between Israel and its neighbor ter-
ritory.

Drilling Deeper
Susser sees this one-state model, advocated by Knesset
Speaker Reuven Rivlin and newcomer Tzipi Hotovely, pos-
sibly surfacing "as a ploy to torpedo Israel's withdrawal
from the West Bank and the dismantling of dozens of Jewish
settlements," provided Israeli-Palestinian peace talks move
forward. I'm skeptical of any real movement in negotiations
given the Palestinian Authority, despite its seeming interest,
refuses to accept Israel within any borders, as the Zionist
Organization of America affirmed in a stinging statement
on Aug. 5.
But I would never say "never."
Of course, there already is a Palestinian state. It's called
Jordan. But since the 1967 war, the kingdom has not
embraced the West Bank — its disarray and its people.
I was intrigued by what the Rivlin-Hotovely plan cites as
advantages: preserving West Bank settlements and main-
taining Israeli military presence in the West Bank, thus
averting exposure to rocket fire (think Hamas' reign of ter-
ror on the Negev after Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza).
Under this plan, wrote Susser, "the international com-
munity would not be able to paint Israel as an apartheid
state because the annexation of the West Bank would grant
full citizenship and voting rights to West Bank Palestinians,
perhaps putting Israel out of its international isolation in a
single stroke?'

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Ultimately, I disagree that the two-
state solution — an Israeli state and
a Palestinian state, coexisting side by
side — is impossible to achieve.

The Genesis
The pioneer of this sort of one-state thinking, writes Susser,
"is journalist Uri Elitzur, a former chairman of the Yesha set-
tlers council and a Netanyahu confidant during Bibi's first
term as prime minister from 1996 to 1999.
Writes Susser: "Elitzur argues that after more than 40 years
of occupation, the international community is tired of Israel
and no longer will accept the status quo. In his view, Israel
needs to do something to break the deadlock or face the pros-
pect of growing international isolation."
Elitzur, editor of Nekuda, the official publication of the set-
tler movement, sees what Netanyahu calls "the unitary demo-
cratic state — with Israelis and Palestinians enjoying equal
political, social and individual rights — as the only option."
Elitzur stresses that he means a Jewish state with a Jewish
majority, not essentially a Palestinian state with a Jewish
minority, which would destroy the Zionist concept of an
ancestral Jewish homeland that Theodor Herzl envisioned so
longingly more than 100 years ago.

A Better Way
Elitzur pitches a noble concept. But it's wrought with strife.
Couple the significantly higher Palestinian birth rate with
an international call for Arab refugee right of return to Israel
and, as Susser writes, "the one-state dream could turn into a
South Africa-style nightmare with a dominant Jewish minor-
ity under pressure to accept Palestinian majority rule."
Any one-state formula further would have to deal with
central issues like flags, schools, services, religion-state, tran-
sition from Israeli annexation to Palestinian citizenship and
whether to have a constitution (Israel has never had one).
Ultimately, I disagree that the two-state solution — an
Israeli state and a Palestinian state, coexisting side by side —
is impossible to achieve. Sure, it doesn't seem to be possible
with the current Palestinian leadership and its brainwashed
populace. But that doesn't mean new, more conciliatory lead-
ership, buoyed by a people weary of their warring way of life,
will not spring forth over time in both Ramallah and Gaza
City Remote as that seems, it remains the most viable option
to preserve Herzl-style Zionism.
It's also the only statehood model actively broached in
the Israeli-Palestinian talks brokered by U.S. envoy George
Mitchell, who is trying hard to move discussion from the dip-
lomatic stage to a direct meeting, at least between Jerusalem
and Ramallah leadership.
Harkening back to one state and its complications mud-
dies already complex prospects for achieving lasting Israeli-
Palestinian peace. ❑

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Can you imagine one state made up of
Israel and the Palestinian territories?

Do you think the long-imagined, two-state
solution still has negotiable legs?

Marty Steiner knew when he

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August 12 • 2010

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