Two State Approach
Context:
- The only long-term solution that has been feasible for the Jewish-Arab conflict since its inception is to split the territory into two countries, one for each of the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine issue looks like this.
Historical context:
- Jews and Arabs have long held firm ideas about their national identities that are connected to the same territory. However, over the majority of this century-long conflict, Jews came to terms with the division’s inevitable outcome while Arabs did not.
- But during the past few decades, things appear to have turned around. While many of the Arab world, the West, and a portion of the Palestinian leadership appear to have agreed on a two-state solution, Israel is the one resisting the creation of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem that would include the West Bank and Gaza.
- Predicting the ramifications of Hamas’s recent terror assaults on Israel, which have resulted in the deaths of over 700 Israelis and sparked an Israeli response, requires an understanding of its motivation.
Who the true players are:
- From a justice perspective, it may be argued that the Israeli and Palestinian people are the only two stakeholders who should be taken into consideration. However, the Israeli people has always been the primary stakeholder in matters of realpolitik. This is due to the fact that no solution is feasible without the consent of Israel, which is a more strong country. Furthermore, as Israel is a democracy, Israeli acquiescence is impossible without the consent of the Israeli people.
- Thus, the only question left to pose is this: would the Israeli population be compelled by Hamas’s attacks to establish an independent Palestinian state? Opinion leaders believe as much. They believe that the agony Israel has experienced as a result of Hamas attacks would eventually cause Israelis to realise that peace cannot exist without a sovereign Palestinian state.
- Israelis, on the other hand, are more likely to conclude that a two-state solution, in which a Palestinian state has its own armed forces and security, will enable the Palestinians to attack Israel with even more vigour. They worry that a sovereign Palestine will act in the same manner as Hamas has throughout.
Hamas’s position:
- Israel’s right to exist in any form is not recognised by Hamas. It targeted and killed innocent civilians, not religious settlers occupying the West Bank, and assaulted Israel on its southern boundaries, which will always be part of Israel’s borders under any future peace agreement.
- Israeli fears that a single Palestinian state between the river and the sea will end the conflict rather than a Palestinian and Jewish state coexisting side by side will only grow as a result of the ostensibly moderate Palestinian Authority in the West Bank supporting Hamas.
- The primary hindrance to achieving a two-state solution is not the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, but rather the Palestinians’ incapacity to persuade Israeli voters that, in exchange for sovereignty over a portion of the territory, they would leave the Jews alone in the rest.
- A hardline Israeli fringe has always refused to acknowledge the Palestinians as a people worthy of their own state. Historically, Israeli politics had marginalised these religious extremists. They now play a significant role in the ruling coalition, which reflects Israeli voters’ growing mistrust of the Palestinians as collaborators in any future peace.
A look ahead and lessons learned:
- After decades of occupation and everyday humiliation, Palestinians have learned that Israeli people must feel their anguish in order to make them lessen it. However, from their point of view, each round of violence against their civilian population has diminished their willingness to take a chance on ending the Palestinian occupation.
- There is only one path to Palestinian sovereignty given the disparity in power between Israel and the Arab world. The goal will be to persuade Israeli voters that Palestine will eventually coexist peacefully with Israel.
- The only viable path forward is for the Palestinian leadership to be able to really assure the Israeli people that it will not harm Israel with the liberties it obtains from any peace agreement. The chances of that are not good.
