WORLD VIEW

The One-State Solution

A two-state solution was a compromise. But talks have gone nowhere, so many Palestinians are giving up.

By Sari Nusseibeh | NEWSWEEK
Published Sep 20, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Sep 29, 2008

« Return to Article

Discuss

Member Comments

  • Posted By: AfricanMiro @ 01/30/2009 4:00:13 AM

    Much has been said over this matter, and a solution is yet to be found. The politicians have grown old and new ones born, yet no resolution has come to aid the children of Israel. The tanks and rockets have faced each other, much blood spilled and life has been destroyed over and over, yet the children of Israel continue to cry. Temples and Mosques have faced against each other, wailed at each other and yet the Children of Israel lie bleeding in the darkened, broken streets.

    A solution so simple that it belies the senses, so near yet so far, offers itself, for peace, peace is possible, not from the bullet, for that kills the killer as well. Not from the politic, for that has sides and vested interests hidden in many hearts, neither from religion, for that not strays when wielded for power rather than for grace???but from the Hearts of the Children of Israel.

    We ask you, Oh Israel, do you want peace? All that you need to end the pain is to stand up for what you know is right. Israel will remain separate no more if only you could take courage to march forth, to enter into your brothers house and take his hand, and his child???s hand, and bring them back to your house. For who will stand against you if you live as brothers?

    Is there one among you that will be the first to enter into your brothers house and live with him? Who is it who will you let your children learn to play as only children can? For you are all One, Children of Israel, from the same womb, from the same God. Do what no politician dares to do, fight the war than no army has been able nor will ever be able to do. March as a common people, and let your battle be fought from the heart, make your dinner table your battle front, be it under a roof or under the shade of a tree.

    Children of Israel, the time for you to have what your hearts have cried for, desired for, died for, in NOW. No one can stop any one of you if you were to take this course of action, to walk straight and open your arms to you brother and your sister. Bring them home. Welcome them into your home and let it also be their home. Go to their homes and let it also be your home. Only then will the guns be silenced. The bombs will not fall nor will the rockets fly, for how can a brother attack his brother? Will a father kill his son? The politicians and martyrs will seek other causes perhaps, let them, but they will not be yours, and no more blood shall not be shed for you. And your Rabbis and your Imam???s will follow you, for the time for the Sheep to lead the Sheppard???s has come.

    Nothing is impossible, oh Ye Children of Israel, as recent events in the world teach us. Heed this call for the sake of your children, aye, even for the sake of the world, for only you can save yourselves.

    Wakahare. January 30th 2009. Nairobi, Kenya
    african.miro@gmail.com

  • Posted By: Ganpat @ 09/24/2008 7:37:18 AM

    Ifroy1100

    In an Israeli protectorate, the palestinians would have a better future than in most Muslim states. The will slowly learn to be liberal.

    Get real.

    • Posted By: froy1100 @ 09/25/2008 12:09:03 AM

      Those paternalistic views have been discarded for already 40 years around the globe. You won't be hearing them proposed by any serious politician, neither Israeli nor Palestinian. It's either equals or totally separated in different states. Time to accept it.

  • Posted By: Scottun @ 09/23/2008 1:40:41 AM

    One state solution, just look at Belgium ready to implode or Kenya or Lebanon or.... Mixing two antagonistic communities in the same country is a recipe for disaster. And by the way in 1949 there were about 400,000 Palestinian refugees and about 1Million Jews in Arab countries. Today more than 1 Million Arabs live in Israel alone and 3,000 Jews in Arab countries. Who are the other "refugees"?

  • Posted By: AnneSeldenAnnab @ 09/21/2008 8:24:24 PM

    Israel is an investment in institutionalized bigotry- and ongoing cruelty: I very much disagree with Sari Nusseibeh's assumption that a two state solution is the best way out of the Zionist made mess in the Holy Land. In fact- as an American appreciating separation between church and state (and real democracy with full and equal rights for all) I am totally convinced that the dangerous pseudo religious/pseudo secular disaster called Israel "The Jewish State" should be erased. Gently and with compassion... and let Palestine (gently and with compassion) return in full with all the Palestinian refugees.

    The tricky part is the transition. Rather than trusting racist Israel to ever do right by the Palestinian, in my own personal opinion, I think it would be better to ask Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to form a Palestinian confederation- a new social, political and economic entity, separate from those four nations, and yet linked to them and all the Arab world. Meanwhile Zionists organizations should be tasked with helping to fund true freedom and return in addition to reparations for the all people of historic Palestine.

  • Posted By: Paqid Yirmeyahu @ 09/21/2008 3:05:58 AM

    Only One Possible Solution... Someday, Not Yet Part 2of2

    Contrast this with lynchings of Jews unfortunate enough to get lost in a Muslim area. The Yemenite and Sepharadi Jews who have lived and suffered abuses under Muslim rule, not even permitted to be men on par with their Arab "superiors," are living testimonials that Muslim claims of tolerance of "dhimmis" are self-deluding lies strictly for western consumption--and LLDs in the west are naive and gullible.

    A priori, the only way both parties will ever coexist without bloodshed is when Israel guarantees, and Arabs are willing to agree, for Arab populations in the disputed Arab-occupied lands to become self-governing protectorates, not a Muslim-Arab state launching pad to finally finish-off Israel.

    For now, this is unthinkable to Muslims and other Arabs because--regardless of the diversionary excuses given to the western media--the core goal of eliminating Israel would be completely taken off the table. Yet, this is the first, unavoidable, step to an enduring peace. Therefore, the only option is to make the CVN protectorates a fait accompli--extending all rights of self-government and self-determination to them except as specified (e.g., the right to vote in Israeli elections, contain a military or terrorists, etc.).

    The same is true of Jerusalem. The only living people for whom Jerusalem was their capital is the Jews... and the only reason this has BECOME important to the Muslims is because they know it is the HEART of Judaism and Jews. Arabs insistence on holding our heart in their hand in just another means of destroying Israel. Muslim and Christian Arabs know that but it's too alien to secular LLDs, including secular Israeli and western "Jewish" LLDs, for them to comprehend.

    To be viable, these protectorates would have to thrive and prosper; guaranteeing the better life that Arabs SAY they seek. Israel would have to open up markets, transportation, communication, etc. Peace, alone, would permit that. It would be in Israel's interest to make it thrive and prosper, to the benefit of Arab residents there. Arafats, Hamases and PLOs would no longer be able to keep them miserable and angry to staff their terrorist martyr positions. It is the only hope for a better life of peace and prosperity for Arabs of this area and their children. We've been here for 3,000 years and they're right about one thing: we are here to stay.

    Then comes the tough part: Israel must not only never budge from that position, despite terrorist responses, never even giving the impression that there is any "wiggle room" that would continue to fuel their hopes of eventually achieving demographic predominance and political Muslim take-over of "Palestine," eliminating Israel entirely.

    Paqid Yirmeyahu
    Paqid 16, The Netzarim
    Israeli Orthodox Jew (Teimani Baladi Dardai)
    Advancing Logic as Halakhic Authority
    Welcoming Jews & non-Jews
    www.netzarim.co.il

    • Posted By: froy1100 @ 09/21/2008 10:21:09 AM

      Protectorates? In what century do you live? No people in the 21st century would accept to be reduced to a "protectorate" controlled by a foreign power. You have to face it, you only have 3 options: get the hell out of the West Bank and let the Arabs have their state, admit them as Israeli citizens with the same rights and obligations as the Jews and any other Israeli citizen, or more conflict for decades to come. Forget about other colonial-era solutions and get real.

  • Posted By: Paqid Yirmeyahu @ 09/21/2008 3:17:05 AM

    Comment: Only One Possible Solution... Someday, Not Yet Addendum

    CVN = Concurrent Village Networks. I've been urging a separate solution for the Arab-occupied West Bank since I proposed two separate and distinct Concurrent Village Networks of protectorates (one Jewish and one Arab) for the West Bank to MK Uzi Landau in 1988.

  • Posted By: Paqid Yirmeyahu @ 09/21/2008 3:04:41 AM

    Only One Possible Solution... Someday, Not Yet Part 1of2

    Arabs cloak their unrelenting goal, the elimination of Israel, in chameleon-like continually-changing disguises to divert attention from their goal of eliminating Israel.

    Peace will not be possible until the Western--European and Christian--world comes to grips with a reality about the two religions--both alien and incomprehensible to western (including western "Jewish") minds--that are the core elements of this conflict. Peace between secular "Jews" and secular "Muslims" has always been a perversion of both religions promoted by Liberal-Left Dilettantes (LLDs) whose vision of peace is neutralizing what they perceive to be their stupid religious brethren. The Israeli government cannot make peace between Israelis, the Arab governments are completely split into two fratricidal factions and the world stupidly expects them to make peace?

    Iran has emplaced a classic pincer attack via its remote arms, Khizb-Allah and Syria--intent on acquiring Israel's north and Hamas eliminating Israel from the South, while Iran prosecutes a frontal nuclear missile to exterminate us.

    The Palistanis are an extension of Islamojihadists of the sort we've seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, etc: equal-opportunity haters and murderers of everybody, even each other--which is why no one wants them. If they were peaceful... Reality is they are not and there are no signs they will ever place a life of peace and prosperity above eliminating Israel from their religious zeal to reacquire what they regard as Waqf land like Spain and other "lost Waqf lands." To preserve this fiction, history began in 1948, or the 7th century. Anything before that, of course, exposes the reality: Israel is Arab-occupied Jewish land and, before Muhammed, Arabs were not the torchbearers of the "true" Biblical faith of Abraham, as Muslim displacement theology claims, but worshipped in an idolatrous temple in Mecca that was transformed into today's Ka'ab. These two intractably contradictory religions can coexist only where separation and tolerance are guaranteed to both.

    The modern reality is that we Jews and our Arab cousins will have to live in close proximity; and it will be better for all of us if we agree to do it without families suffering constant losses of relatives to bloodshed.

    There are only two ways to achieve this:
    [a] Israel to become a protectorate of Muslims or
    [b] Muslims in the disputed areas to become protectorates of Jews

    Arab Israelis live, prosper compared to their brethren, and enjoy the freedom to complain in Israel. Arab merchants drive by my apartment periodically, with loudspeakers blaring their offers, in complete safety. I see Arabs mingling in the crowds shopping at the mall. No one pays any special attention to them any differently than Jews.

  • Posted By: joelsk44039 @ 09/20/2008 9:54:52 PM

    Mr. Nusseibeh mistakenly believes that Palestine consists exclusively of Israel and the so-called Palestinian Territories (the "West Bank" and Gaza). Historic Palestine also includes the modern country of Jordan, which was stripped away by the British in 1922. The Palestinian "people" are a figment of the Arab imagination, and because of the endless repetition of this lie, the world actually believes they exist.

    The "Palestinians" have given up nothing. They are a sociopathic "people" who exist for one purpose only -- to eventually eliminate the State of Israel -- by force, by "negotiation" or by any other means they can use.

    Israel has an absolute right to exist and has given up much in the name of peace, including the Sinai and Gaza, ro which they have received absolutely nothing in return from the Arabs, including the Palestinians. When the Arabs act in a manner that suggests they are actual human beings and not murderous thugs, hell bent on destroying Israel, then, maybe, maybe Israel should reciprocate further. Otherwise, forget it.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse