More Israelis, Palestinians support the ‘one-state’ solution
Givat Zeev, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank
Ksenia Svetlova writes in Al-Monitor:
It is not at all clear whether US President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” will ever be implemented, but the very fact that it has been made public is having an impact on the mood in Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Remarks made by the president, when the plan was first revealed on Jan. 28, did not fall on deaf ears. Many people in Israel have come to the conclusion that the ultimate purpose of the plan was the immediate, unilateral annexation of the territories by Israel. Meanwhile, in the PA, many are convinced that the plan moves the Palestinians even further away from realizing their dream of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. It now looks like the number of people on both sides who no longer believe in a two-state solution is increasing and will continue to grow, even if only gradually.
Back in September 2018, Trump said that both parties — Israelis and Palestinians — can decide on their own whether they would prefer two states or a single state. At the same time, support among the Palestinians for the idea of a single state was increasing. In 2002, when Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi proposed his solution to the conflict, which he called “Israetine” (his proposal for the name of a new state, in which both peoples would enjoy full equality), the idea of a single, democratic state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River was met with derision and ridicule in Israel, the PA and the Arab world at large. A lot of water has flowed down the Jordan River since then. It now seems as if the younger generation in the PA and a significant number of Israelis, including both settlers and supporters of the left, have adopted the idea of a single state as their final default solution, capable of ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
According to a new poll published Feb. 11 by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), headed by Khalil Shikaki, support for a two-state solution stands at less than 40% for the first time since the signing of the Oslo Accord. About 61% of respondents no longer believe that a two-state solution is viable, given the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Shikaki tweeted as much just two weeks before the release of the deal of the century, saying that only 28% of Palestinians supported the idea of a single-state solution, but that number skyrocketed to 37% after the plan was released. In an article published in Haaretz upon the release of the deal of the century, Israeli-Arab journalist Nabil Armali wrote, “Actually, the Palestinians no longer have any tools with which they can fight against Israel, apart from describing the potential damage that some envisioned single state would cause. Armed struggle doesn’t have a chance, and it is not worth depending on support from the Arab states or the Arab