Daphna Baram has a great article on the Guardian website today – "It's time to rethink Zionism." Similar to the recent LA Times editorial questioning Israeli democracy, Baram starts out by stating the obvious:
The results of last week's parliamentary elections
in Israel brought to the surface some of the most rotten fruits of a
debate that has been going on throughout the state's existence: the
idea that a mono-ethnic Jewish state is feasible, legitimate and
desirable.
Baram then covers a quick survey of Israeli history to the present day along with this gem outlining the history of the two-state solution:
The phrase "the demographic danger" became a legitimate part of the discourse calling for a two-state solution.
What started as a lefty support for Palestinian national
self-determination had turned in this century into a tool for
propagating apartheid. From that point, it was easy for anybody on the
right, from Ariel Sharon to Tzipi Livni and Binyamin Netanyahu, to
adopt it, and for George Bush's administration to embrace it.
Accordingly, that obscure entity the "Palestinian State" was to be of
crippled borders that would compromise its already questionable
viability. It was to be a
Bantustan.
These, more than any other reasons, explain why the two-state solution is falling out of favor internationally: the idea of an ethnically defined state is not consistent with liberal values and people know "the two-state solution" has become a code word for making the Israeli occupation permanent.
This analysis is not even based in conjecture, it's being stated out in the open by prospective Israeli leaders. Just today, Benjamain Netanyahu is reported to have told 100 leaders from the Conference
of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, "while he
would not want to govern the Palestinians, Israel must maintain control
of all borders, airspace and electronic traffic." He is quoted as saying "Palestinians should have sovereignty, but not at our expense." Translation: Israel will continue its colonization of the West Bank and if the Palestinians want to call what remains a "state", fine with me.
The two-state solution is not only falling out of favor internationally, but within Israel/Palestine as well. A poll was released yesterday saying that 51% of Israeli adults oppose the formation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank (they didn't even ask about Gaza). The poll was released by the Israeli television channel 2. Only 32% supported the creation of a state.
It's not clear from this poll what the respondents support instead, but this would seem to be a reflection of the trends that carried Netanyahu, Livni and Lieberman to victory in the recent Israeli elections. None of them believe in a meaningful two-state solution.
And maybe that's why it's fallen out of favor as well: There is no Israeli partner for peace. (Adam Horowitz)
