Resources – One, Two, or No State

Posted by on 2016-12-23

One State Solution

Most of the organizations which comprise the formal Israel Lobby, including AIPAC, WINEP, and ZOA, promote policies which are virtually identical to the Likud’s One State platform, which states that there will never be a Palestinian homeland west of Jordan. Look on a map to see what that means. AIPAC has enjoyed bipartisan support for years, even as both the GOP and DNC neglected the creation of a Palestinian state and lavished many billions of dollars on Israel. Besides formal lobbyists, there are also several American Zionist organizations that fund settlements and, in so doing, undermine the Two State solution.

No-State Solution

There’s no arguing with the fact that America has a lot of anti-Semites. This week the neo-Nazi friends of Richard Spencer and Steve Bannon are planning an armed march to terrorize Jewish families and businesses of Whitefish, Montana. For most of us, however, like former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart who was referring to pornography, we know anti-Semitism when we see it.

But Israel managed a linguistic coup by extending the definition of anti-Semitism to include any criticism of Israel. Organizations that once fought and illuminated hatred of Jews now find themselves spending a lot of time enmeshed in Israeli foreign and domestic policy. They claim to support the Two State solution but argue that only because of anti-Semitism and recalcitrance do Palestinians have “no state” and deserve none for the time being – until Israel’s “security” needs are satisfied.

Two-State Solution

The majority of American Jews want a Two State solution and it’s not hard to see why. The One State solution means either (1) expelling all Arabs (something Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has advocated and which half of Israelis support); (2) depriving Palestinians of a state, civil laws and rights, squeezing them into reservations or bantustans, and subjecting them to endless checkpoints; or (3) inviting Palestinians into the Israeli state. Israel has backed itself into a corner with decades of “annexation” and there’s hardly anything left for Palestinians. Occupation is all it knows. Israel could also embrace (4) the American “Indian reservation” model and unilaterally declare encircled “cantons” a “Palestinian” homeland. I fear this option would satisfy most Americans because – it seems to have worked nicely for us.

American Jews and progressive Israelis see both the moral danger and the self-destructive effect of leaving nothing for Palestinians. Consequently many American Jewish organizations support the Two State Solution:

Zionism

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