Two State Solution: Who Are We Kidding?

Except for the Trump years, a two-state solution (Palestine – Gaza, East Jerusalem and the much larger West Bank, on one side – and Israel, on the other, in what is currently land under Israeli control) has been US policy since the US participated in the 1993 Oslo Accords. These accords resulted in both the recognition of Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the recognition by Israel of the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and as a partner in bilateral negotiations, intended to pave the way for that separate two-state partition.

Decades have passed, and well before the advent of Likud’s ultra-conservative PM, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, Jewish settlers – often by force of arms as IDF (Israel’s military) soldiers stood idly by – simply pushed established Palestinian residents (homes, farms and businesses) out, taking over their land, sometimes killing the former residents. The settlers built defensive positions among their conquered real estate, and over time, it estimated that as many as 650,000 such settlers now live just in the West Bank (see above photo of Jewish settlers’ construction cranes), in addition to the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza (who have survived) where there are no Jewish settlers, just IDF soldiers and the hostages.

Post Oslo, most of the world (including the US), voiced by the UN, has always maintained that the Jewish settlements on the West Bank are illegal or illegitimate. But no one did anything to stop this effort, although the Biden administration did sanction a small number of Jewish settlers accused of violent takeovers. In the past few years, encouraged by the Trump administration, Netanyahu declared the two-state solution dead, the open city of Jerusalem to be Israeli (and the capital of the nation) and has approved a vast array of new Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

For example, in early July, it seems that Israel’s government has approved over 5,000 new housing units in a host of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, as well as recognizing three new settlement outposts in the Palestinian territory. Netanyahu’s moves are an effort to ensure that the West Bank will never be part of any Palestinian state. How did this happen under the watchful eye of the UN and even Israel’s traditional ally and accelerant of the Oslo Accords, the United States?

Writing for the July 5th Associated Press, Caleb Diehl and Joseph Federman , suggest a two-state solution would be politically impossible today: “Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades and advanced plans to build thousands of new settlement homes, according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group. They are the latest steps by Israel’s hard-line government meant to cement Israel’s control over the territory and prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state…

“Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians seek all three areas for their future state. In 56 years, Israel has built well over 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank. Settlers also have built scores of tiny unauthorized outposts that are tolerated or even encouraged by the government. Some are later legalized.” It’s not as if the West Bank Jewish settlements are all concentrated in one, single identifiable pocket; they are scattered. Israel’s extreme right, now in a coalition with Likud, actually envision the expulsion of all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza… to God knows where.

No one could have done a better job of making that two-state an impossibility than Netanyahu. He underestimated the growing power of Hamas, PLO’s regional competitor in Gaza, even as he funneled truckloads of cash to that terrorist organization (also funded and armed by Iran) in the hopes of buying a pliant and weak political force… yet one that, like Iran and its other regional surrogates (notably Hezbollah and the Houthis), wanted to purge the entire Jewish state “from the [Jordan] river to the sea.”

Netanyahu also made it clear that Israel is and always would be a “Jewish state.” Muslim Palestinians were always treated with disdain, even as many became Israeli citizens. They were denied free travel, and while they voted, they remained an abused and powerless minority. There were times when an entire family would be punished (their house would be bulldozed) if a member of that family were accused of being a terrorist.

There are so many questions that must be addressed about the future, even in light of Netanyahu’s efforts to oppress all local Palestinians. Aside from the obvious “who rules Gaza and how is that land rebuilt” after the war, if there isn’t to be a two-state solution including the West Bank, what would a one-state solution look like? Apartheid governance? One state where all citizens are treated equally? Reparations to the West Bank Palestinians whose homes, business and farms were taken by force by Jewish settlers? Nothing? Let the parties continue to battle it out over the years?

Many have argued, with justification, that Netanyahu’s pledge completely to eliminate Hamas from Gaza, a military impossibility even according to IDF generals, is just a way for him to avoid the corruption trial he is facing. His pre-Gaza war effort to make the Israeli judiciary subject to reversal by the Knesset (Israel’s unicameral parliament) – with the same goal in mind – led to massive protests. Weak efforts to reach a peaceful end to the horrific Gaza conflict, sabotaged by Netanyahu’s demands, have begun to frustrate the Israel public who want the release of their hostages to be the priority.

On Sunday, July 7th, “Marking nine months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, protesters blocked highways across the country… calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a cease-fire to bring back scores of hostages… [Hamas] still wants mediators to guarantee a permanent cease-fire, while Netanyahu is vowing to keep fighting until Israel destroys Hamas’ military and governing capabilities… ‘Any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved,’ Netanyahu said in a statement Sunday that was likely to deepen Hamas’ concerns about the proposal.” AP, July 8th. It is an obvious and total mess, and the United States’ relative passivity over the post-Oslo decades has only helped make a terrible situation absolutely intolerable.

I’m Peter Dekom, and except for Iran and its surrogates, Israel’s extreme right wing and Netanyahu, continuing the Gaza conflict and not resolving the obvious questions about future governance under a fair and just program based on human rights, benefits no one.