The Christian Science Monitor has what has to be the most singularly idiotic piece on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I’ve ever read. The essential thesis is that there can’t be a two-state solution, so there should be a one-state solution on the order of South Africa.
This sounds like something out of a freshman IR class. It’s an idea that completely ignores the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A one-state solution would result in the complete and utter destruction of Israel. The Palestinians would use Israeli’s democratic infrastructure to institute shari’a and expel the Jews – assuming that they would accept such a solution at all. The whole point of the idea of "the right of return" is that the Palestinians would use numbers to eradicate any hopes of a Jewish state in the Middle East
Moreover, the comparison between South Africa and Israel is also inaccurate and simpleminded. Blacks in South Africa had not been engaging in genocidal terrorism against whites. Blacks in South Africa were not trying to remove all whites from the African continent. Blacks in South Africa weren’t preaching a philosophy of absolute destruction. The idea that the Palestinians would have a Truth and Reconciliation Council is laughable when they have continually expressed a goal of genocide by any means possible. Political integration is just another means to that end.
A one-state solution is a solution that would invariable lead to the demographic destruction of Israel and create another failed state in the Middle East. It is beyond naive to assume that a one-state solution is possible or desirable. In the end, the only solution is one that preserves the Israelis right of self determination and allows the Palestinians to suceed and fail on their own merits. Comparing the Israeli-Palestinian situation to South Africa is a comparison that ignores the fundamental realities behind the conflict and the fact that integration is impossible when one side has the express goal of eliminating the other.
a one-state solution is definitely the only possible solution. This way, the jews, muslims AND christians could leave in peace. A real democracy instead of a religious fanatic state is a lot easier to set up when you have many religion. I’m not a big fan of the sharia, but also not of the extreme right orthodox jews law, imposing for example to non-jews to rest for shabbat (because the whole country is down). Fanatism is the same to me whatever the religion it comes from.
The only difference with what will happen in the end if we keep on the tracks we’re in now is that there would be no palestinians left to see this one state if we let it happen over the next 50 years:
The palestinians are angry to have a state coming in 5 pieces, and will never be happy about it. thus they will continue being “terrorists”, thus Israel will continue to take over some land, and in the end, Israel will have kill them all, and take over the whole territory (plus some extra parts from neighbouring countries).
One democracy where all religions could leave together is the only solution. Unless you don’t care about the lives of palestinians, which you probably do in fact.
As for the demographic rates:
-the israelis families have a lot of children (6-8)
-jews from all over the world are still moving in
which explain why colonies have a natural growth.
There is absolutely no proof that palestinians would not decrease in demographics, and learn democracy as well as other population around the world did.
Finally, this solution would provide the very israelis with security.
The birth rate in Israel is actually below replacement level, and the demographics in the region vastly favor Arabs rather than Jews. The rate of population growth in Israel is 1.39% according to the latest World Almanac using UN figures. The net rate of migration is a paltry 1.39 migrants per 1,000 citizens. 2.5 children per woman is the average.
By comparison the West Bank has a population increase rate of 3.3%, a birth rate of 34.07 births per 1,000 (twice the rate of Israel), and a net migration rate of 3.07 migrants per 1,000 population. The average Palestinian woman has 4.65 children.
In other words, your "facts" are either incorect or propaganda.
As Arafat said himself during the Oslo Accord:
(Yassir Arafat as quoted by the Norwegian newspaper Dagen on 20 February 1996. Note that Arafat’s plans are being implimented and there are now over 6 million Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza.)
Well to be fair.. there were elements of both the African National Congress (their military front “spear of the nation”), the Inkatha Liberation Front and other further left black groups in South Africa that were targeting innocent white civilians who had no links to the security apparatus. Not that I would compare the one party state of apartheid South Africa to Israel’s government. The old South African regime was as illegitmate as one comes, and surely no true democrat (I don’t mean that word in the party sense) can weep its downfall. However, in the new era there are systematic attacks on Afrikaners. The Afrikaner ethnic group is the most murdered per capita in the world. There have been reports of certain ANC elements giving atleast tacit support to some of these attacks. The old South Africa was a pretty nasty and evil regime. The new South Africa, while more equal, has shown some ugly trends of reverse racism and hatred. I am not drawing a parallel between the, but just making a point. The “new South Africa” is not a model to follow, unless having the world’s highest rape rate is something a nation is proud of.
there is one major trend in the evolution of humanity you cannot ignore: It is the perpetual increase of communication between ethnic groups.
At the beginning of this era(10 000 years ago), people from the other side of the river were foreigners, ennemies. Now, people from Florida consider themselves from the same country as people from Washington St.
If you want to go against this trend, and separate populations with a wall, do it. But you’ll have to deal with the consequences. If the black population of south Afrika is so upset, maybe it IS because of past segragation. This rift will eventually disappear with time, just as a french teenager and a german one can be friends, which was unlikely to happen for my grand-parents.
Building the wall is just moving the date of the reconciliation of these populations far in the futur.
“This way, the jews, muslims AND christians could leave in peace. A real democracy instead of a religious fanatic state is a lot easier to set up when you have many religion.”
Right now this is not posible, I can’t even believe that you would think that this is possible. If you think after many years of fighting and death that either side will back down right now you are not living in reality. I am not a fan of building a wall but for now I think that separation is the best idea for both sides. Neither of the generations on either side have not experienced war, by separating them they will start to see what life is like in peace, then maybe a few decades down the line they can talk about living together in a “real democracy”.