By way of a friend, A Cursory View of Benny Morris's forthcoming book, One State, Two States
Morris argues against both a two-state and a one-state solution, and in favor (though he thinks it a remote possibility) of an Arab confederation that would include and assimilate the Palestinians. Most of the book is given to a defense of Israeli conduct since 1948 and a root-and-branch condemnation of Palestinian savagery. The Dennis Ross-Bill Clinton version of the negotiations of 2000–that Barak made generous concessions beyond all expectation, while Arafat was first unstable, then treacherous–is here presented as simple historical truth.
A final chapter offers a grim prognosis:
"So, if a one-state solution is a nonstarter, what are the prospects for a two-state solution? Put simply, they appear very bleak. Bleak primarily because the Palestinian Arabs, in the deepest fibers of their being, oppose such an outcome, demanding, as they did since the dawn of their national movement, all of Palestine as their patrimony." (pp. 193-94)
This makes an echo of the formulation by General Moshe Yaalon regarding the Israeli reprisals in Gaza in 2002: that victory for Israel would only come with the "deep internalization" of the idea in "Palestinian and Arab consciousness" that the Palestinians could never win. What concern certain Israelis show with "Arab consciousness" and "the deepest fibers" of Palestinians! Who was it that used to speak in a similar way about Jewish consciousness and the very "being" of Jews?
