‘Foreign Affairs’ survey on two-state solution shows Israel advocates cling to it, few others
A Palestinian boy rides a horse near the separation wall at Rafat on 3 February 2019
Philip Weiss writes in Mondweiss:
Last week Foreign Affairs released a survey of expert opinion on whether a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine future is still viable. The magazine got 64 short answers and they reveal a remarkable trend:
The conviction that the two-state solution is viable is chiefly held by Israel advocates. Palestinian and Arab experts and Realists doubt that a Palestinian state can ever emerge.
Just as revealing: The view on the part of Israel-supporters that a Palestinian state is a viable option is often stated as a matter of hope and faith and not tied to facts. We just need better leaders, is one theme. If we don’t get a two-state solution it’s “the end of Zionism” (says Israeli Joshua Krasna). And even, Why are you daring to ask this question!
As Martin Indyk summarizes in a tweet, “Most Palestinian and Arab experts agree the two-state solution is not viable; most American and Israeli experts aren’t yet ready to give it up. That’s probably because without it they all know Israel is doomed but Palestine maybe not.”
But let me quote some of the responses. The experts were asked whether they agree, and how strongly, with the statement, “The two state solution is no longer viable.”
Palestinians Diana Buttu, Zaha Hassan, Youssef Munayyer, Nadia Abu El-Haj, and Haidar Eid among others all strongly agreed with the proposition.
Hassan’s answer speaks for many. Notice how much she describes actual facts/trends rather than offering a prescription:
The two-state solution––and any negotiated political solution between Israelis and Palestinians based on international legitimacy––has become impracticable. There is no political constituency in Israel to support either meaningful Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza and the West Bank including East Jerusalem or enfranchisement in the state of Israel. Most Israelis are fine with a continuation of the status quo or formal annexation of the occupied territories. Israel’s Jewishness is valued more than democratic governance and equal rights. U.S. policy, which has operated to guarantee that Israel would be shielded from the consequences of its actions that violate international law, has facilitated the current sense of impunity among Israeli officials. There is no sign that U.S. policy will change appreciably in the next four years. The Israeli-Palestinian “conflict” has now morphed into a struggle for freedom and equal rights for all living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
Now let’s move on to the main story: The extent to which the Israel lobby is clinging to the two-state solution as a doctrine or article-of-faith that must withstand a lot of facts on the ground.
Just about all the experts at Israeli institutions and the Israel lobby thinktank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said they disagreed. But they did so as a matter of hope.