2011: The year the two state solution died
Netanyahu can now take partial credit for having killed the two state solution. The other half goes to the Palestinians.
By Carlo StrengerIt is time to have a clear-headed, hard look at reality: the two state solution is dead.
Early in this fateful year of 2011, leading Palestinian intellectual and President of Al Quds University Sari Nousseibeh published his deeply disturbing book, "What is a Palestinian State Worth?" Nousseibeh, who has been a peace activist for decades, takes stock of the conflict. With rare empathy he says that he doesn't believe that after the holocaust Jews would be capable of relinquishing the West Bank or full military control over the whole area west of the Jordan.
Nousseibeh suggested the Palestinians relinquish their struggle for statehood. He even asked them to accept that, for a long time, they would not have full political rights, and that they should settle for civic and human rights to make life as bearable as possible. His deeply pessimistic conclusion was that, given the realities, the human cost of continuing the struggle for a Palestinian state was too high.
At the time I did not want to accept Nousseibeh’s conclusion. I hoped that the Palestinian bid for UN recognition would bear fruit and that it would stop the march toward catastrophe.
I maintained this hope not just for the Palestinians, but for Israel; because I believed that both Jews and Palestinians wanted and needed political self-determination; but primarily because I couldn’t see the one state solution working; and finally, because I shuddered at the idea that we Jews would continue to rule another people.
My hope was misguided.
From a historical perspective, the two state solution’s demise was, maybe, inevitable. Except for six years, the Likud has been in power for the last thirty-five years, and the Likud never relinquished its dream of the greater land of Israel. When Rabin won elections for Prime Minister in 1992, both he and Peres felt that this was a last chance; they believed that what they would not achieve in Rabin’s term would not be achieved at all.
Rabin had to govern, with a minority of the Knesset supporting him, and Israel’s right never felt that he had a mandate for the Oslo process. Netanyahu spoke at demonstrations where crowds held posters depicting Rabin as a Nazi. He was later recorded taking pride in having killed off the Oslo process.
Now he can take partial credit for having killed the two state solution. The other half goes to the Palestinians: As Mahmoud Abbas said more than a year ago, the Palestinian’s greatest mistake was the second Intifada. Indeed, together with Hamas’ win of the elections in 2006 and the shelling of southern Israel, the Intifada’s horrible violence has made Israelis averse to taking further risks for peace.
Those of us who have invested years of hope and energy into promoting the two state solution must now accept defeat. It’s too easy to blame this on Netanyahu exclusively: Israel’s electorate has, after all, given him the mandate; and, as some of his Likud MKs driving the recent wave of illiberal legislation keep saying, they have been called to implement the Likud’s policy: the prevention of a Palestinian state.
Where do we go from here?
To some extent, this depends on Palestinians. If they will return to the path of violence, the land west of the Jordan will soon look like Bosnia, descending into an even greater spiral of destruction.
If they will, as they say, stick to peaceful resistance, they will need a lot of stamina indeed. In the short run, I am afraid, they will, as Sari Nousseibeh predicts, live without full political rights. I say this with shame. But this is the truth.
Israel will refrain for a long time from formally annexing the West Bank to avoid the accusation that it runs an apartheid regime. But it will expand settlements in the tradition of Ariel Sharon, to drive more nails into the coffin of the two state solution.
We who have fought for the two state solution must now regroup. For the foreseeable future, we will have to work hard to prevent erosion of Israeli civil society and defend its institutions. We will have to fight to contain human rights violations as far as possible.
Our long-term task is to develop new models of dealing with the emerging reality. I wish I could say something clear and constructive, but for the time being I can’t. I have not yet seen realistic models other than the two state solution.
The one state solution, at this point, is an empty concept, so is that of an Israeli-Palestinian confederation. For neither case can I imagine how the parliament of the greater Israel-Palestine would function, or how equality of all citizens with respect to security could be achieved: I agree with Sari Nousseibeh that Jewish history from the Pogroms through the Holocaust, from the 1948 war to that of 1973, is too traumatic for Israelis to relinquish control of security for a long time to come.
Yet any solution that looks like apartheid is unacceptable.
Although the two state solution was far from perfect: at least it gave answers to these basic questions of governance and civic rights. But Israel’s citizens and its government have decided: It will not be.
For the "Free World" the end of the two state solution has a number of implications. The charade of trying to get Netanyahu to negotiate with Palestinians can be ended: there is nothing to talk about with Netanyahu, and he is likely to win Israel’s next elections as well. To some extent, this may come as a relief: after all, trying to set up negotiations was a waste of time and energy.
I am afraid that Israel will lose many friends in the gradual process of finalizing its sovereignty over the West Bank. Netanyahu and Lieberman have already aggravated many politicians and supporters of Israel, ranging from Hillary Clinton to Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. And they have deepened the alienation many Jews in the Diaspora feel towards the current government’s policies that they cannot accept.
And yet I hope that the Free World will stand by those in Israel who try to maintain its civil society, and to defend civil rights: scientists, artists, journalists and the many citizens who will continue fighting for a decent society here. We will need support and friendship to be true to our ideals.
And finally Israel, despite its shortcomings, needs the Free World’s commitment to its safety in an instable reality, with some neighbors who share radical and destructive ideologies. I want to remind the unjust critics who love to jump to the conclusion that Israel was a mistake that they wouldn’t dare saying so about Serbia, Syria or Iran; states whose past or present human rights violations belong to a different sphere than Israel’s. Israel, even in its current imperfect and disappointing state, is here to stay.
I would like to end this rather somber eulogy for the two state solution on a personal note. Looking back on the entries in ‘Strenger than Fiction’ of 2011, I see how difficult this year was politically. In many ways my motivation to analyze and reflect upon the many negative developments of this year; of trying to maintain hope, and sticking to principles of decency was fuelled by the support of many friends and readers, in Israel and abroad.
This community of like-minded people is varied. It is composed of Jews and Gentiles; of people who clearly belong to the left, and others who are more centrist in their positions; it spreads from Jerusalem through Europe to the U.S. and South America with occasional interesting comments from India and Korea.
It is held together by a set of common beliefs: that all humans are created equal; that we must strive to create societies that protect human rights, and allow individuals and cultures to flourish; and that the task of humanity is to gradually overcome our tribal past and strive towards a world order that reflects out dependence upon each other. I am grateful for this community that is keeping our hopes alive, even in difficult times.
Selected blog posts by Carlo Strenger from 2011:
Decline and fall of Israel’s Messianic politics
Israel is trapped in paranoid vicious circles
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Check the level of pure nonsnse coming from the zio--gallerie. There must have been a recent graduation from th zio school of hasbara- flash gordon/doctordoc and the return of victor jarhead aka paul harris of san remo fame. I envy you oh Israel--having this lot in your corner.
Apartheid ENDS.
The one thing that has allowed Israel to maintain its occupation is that the US has bankrolled and protected it. This era is coming to an end as the US looses influence and financial strength - Facing a long hard climb out of debt, Americans will be less and less inclined to support Israel's agression as even some Republican's have been saying. With China ascending in power, it will be the Palestinian's who gain the fiscal and political backing. Israel, fond of telling the Palestinians the never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity will themselves find they missed their chances - and contrary to the author's suggestion, the world is not going to allow another aparthied - so the wait for rights, even in a one state solution will not be as long as he thinks.
is Mr. Strenger's opinion only, yet so many of you are looking at it as a foregone conclusion. Time will tell. However, if Mr. S is correct, then Israeli's will have to live with violence forever.
when ben gurion etc decided for a jewish state.
The Jews of Israel, not "Netanyahu" have reached the conclusion regarding what is best for them in view of the reality that hey are facing or likely to face. They have learned from past mistakes and are trying to minimize them. Just like Carlo they do not have the answer, but they have concluded that for the foreseeable time a "two states solution is not the answer irrespective of what the Europeans or other nations think. It is the Israelis who have to live in the reality and not a dream.
The Second Intifada was over a decade ago. That's the pretext for apartheid rule? Gimme a friggin' break.
Ben Gurion was clever enough in 1947-48 to realise that he should take what he could get and worry about the rest at a more opportune time. He saw zionism as a movement which would result in a Jewish State. He got the first part but never gave up his desire for acquiring the rest of Eretz Israel. He was simply more pragmatic and had a different sense of timing but his zionism was no different from the forefathers of the right wing.
Netanyahu has single-handedly destroyed forty plus years of peace negotiations, and we all know it's true.
Ben Gurion always feared that the Right might gain control of the country. He considered them fantasizers, which they happen to be. Everybody who believes in Greater Israel with millions of Arabs in the West Bank plus the Israeli Arabs, should get his head examined. (I exclude the Messianists from this, they believe in the myth of the Messiah who will solve all their problems. Craziness, but not curable by a Doctor.) Ben Gurion chose not to conquer the West Bank in the War of Independence, for which the pre-Likud Rightists offered a no-confidence motion. This idiocy goes back a long time, as one can see.
bombs and attacks will increase and continue. the world will "pull"(like Silverstin) its support and Isreal will never enjoy peace
According to a report on the Debka site Abbas has fired the West Bank security minister and replaced him with another more inline with Hamas. The 3rd intifada is on its way. The hudna is coming to its end.
Mr. Strenger, the community of which you speak is powerless and that is a relaity which you must face. You cannot have your cake and eat it as well. Where is this "community" of like minded people who understand the injustice of the status quo? How effective have they been in bringing about social or political change? Can they develop a program, an agenda, that is not overwhelmed by a paralyzing sense of victimhood and mistrust of the outside world? If this is an inbred national characteristic then how can you expect to live in the international community. And in turn, how can the rest of the world relate to you except out of an impenetrable sense of guilt that allows the worst excesses of Israel to occur without any accountability? Sari Nusseibeh called for a two state solution back in the 1980s and his plan formed in conjunction with representatives from the Likud was denounced by Israel. Israel has no intention of achieving a two state solution. Apartheid is inevitable and internal violence between gangs of judeo terrorists and the kulturkampf between religious extremeism and the secular majority will pull apart whatever unity you have achieved. The Palestinians need nothing more than forbearance and patience. Zionism as an ideology has solved nothing and the fruit is in the present for all to see.
Israelis share the greater responsibility for the 'death' of the two-state solution. They did not have to settle the West Bank. The presence of the army and of the Security Wall would have been enough to prevent acts of terror and launching of rockets..
Even Abbas agrees today that the 1947 Arab rejection of the UN Partition Resolution was a mistake. He also believes that Intifadah II, the armed rebellion, was a mistake. (Gandhi and Martin Luther King must be smiling from on high.) And now we see Abbas himself acting as a diplomatic fool. Asking for UN membership right away, instead of first asking the GA for recognition as a state, was a big, foolish mistake. The application for membership had to be submitted to, and approved by, the Security Council, which was sure to fail because of a certain US veto. Abbas should have instead requested the GA to approve his independent state based on the 1967 borders, which he surely would have gotten, and become a non-member state observer in the UN. Membership could come later, as Israel's did about a year after Independence. This would have enabled the internationally recognized state of Palestine to join UNESCO and other international bodies. But most importantly, it could join the ICC, and have every Israeli official involved in settlements indicted on a war crime, which would have forced the end of the settlement enterprise. It would have opened the way to sincere negotiations with Netanyahu because the latter would not have had anything to gain from a delay. Would Abbas do it even now, after his first false move? Somehow, he fails to declare this obvious step. How can a people be so incredibly inept? I believe this is based on a larger cultural failure, but will not elaborate now.
Equal right for all!
Since Israel is not a member of the ICC, she will not be able to complain against Palestinians. It ain't symmetric, but you only find out if you make an exceptional effort to educate yourself.
If Palestine is admitted as member of the ICC, she will be able to report any Israeli official involved in settlement construction and ask the Court for an indictment for a war crime. (The Israeli Attorney General has already told the Cabinet it might be vulnerable to this charge.) This will bring to an end the settlement enterprise and open the door for serious peace negotiations with Israel because Israel will no longer have anything to gain from a delay.
does not deserve either praise or safety.
If the analysis of M. Strenger will be right. , then the Iranian president will have been right too. He announced that the jewish state of Israel will dissapear. A one state solution will be in contradiction to the jewish dream to live in their Holy Land alone. The majority of the future population will be Palestinians. In case that the basic principles of a modern democratic country will be respected, then the jewish zealots and the islamic fanatics cannot form a coalition to govern this jewish-palestinian state. This will be very interesting for the whole world, especially for the arab neighbors and it would be an example of human partnership.
Thank you Mr Strenger for a bleak but clearly heartfelt analysis. Just 2 points I would like to respond to: 1) “And yet I hope that the Free World will stand by those in Israel who try to maintain its civil society, and to defend civil rights: scientists, artists, journalists and the many citizens who will continue fighting for a decent society here. We will need support and friendship to be true to our ideals”. Of course, fair and decent people throughout the world will stand by you and other brave and principled Israeli citizens, as we stand with Palestinian activists who have struggled at greater cost and in more restricted circumstances for many years. 2) “And finally Israel, despite its shortcomings, needs the Free World’s commitment to its safety in an instable reality, with some neighbors who share radical and destructive ideologies”. However Israel deserves no special commitment to its security, beyond that offered to any other state, certainly for so long as the fascistic elements in Israeli society are charged by the electorate with governing the country. Why should Israelis be more entitled to security commitments given by “the Free World” than Palestinians? Any “existential threat” Israel claims to suffer notwithstanding its massive military capability is a consequence of its Jewish citizens’ inability to contemplate a future in which Jews and non-Jews are treated alike. That destructive aspect of Israeli Jews’ psychology is only fed by security guarantees. My guess is that the rest of the world - apart from US politicians acting under duress – do not want to perpetuate your problems with our money, guns and blood. Nor should we.
50% responsability for the palestinians ? you're joking Mister Strenger. Israel occupies the land, controls palestinians lives, erected 100 check points, does not control its settlers and you want palestinians to take 50% responsability ? i understand you do not want to put the blame on your country and be considered as a treator but at least be honest. Thanks
I totally agree w/ your well reasoned arguments, but I think, from afar I reckon, that the world will impose the 2 state solution on Israel. Furthermore, we (as jews) should not rule on other people We know better. Better a bad deal than none.
Israel has never sought a genuine peace--not at the expense of the Greater Israel--read what all zionist leaders said on the matter --then read the likud Charter. """"Read the Likud charter and statements by "all" previous Israeli leaders going right back to Ben Gurion long before 5 Arab Armies alledgedly attacked the nascent State. Here are three examples " In 1938, Ben-Gurion made it clear of his support for the "Jewish state" on part of Palestine was only as a stepping ground for a complete conquest. He wrote: "[I am] satisfied with part of the country, but on the basis of the assumption that after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state--we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 107 & One Palestine Complete, p. 403) * One day after the UN vote to partition Palestine, Menachem Begin, the commander of the Irgun gang and Israel's future Prime Minister between 1977-1983, proclaimed: "The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for Ever." (Iron Wall p. 25) * ""Shamir has said Israel must keep the territories in order to accommodate the immigrants. "A great aliyah [immigration]," he said, "requires a Greater Israel."(5) He has insisted that, although Soviet Jews are not being directed to the territories, any Jew has the right to live anywhere in the land of Israel, which for most Israelis includes the territories.
The two state solution (and Oslo for that matter) died in 2000 when the Arafat PLO rejected the generous offer by Israel at Camp David with Clinton. They are never going to get more than that, and the suffering of their own people will go on,..........
As the year progressed abbas' demands grew and grew he knowingly made impossible demands of Israel that he knew could not be given. Did you listen to or read abbas; un speech. Read his lips "no Jews in palestine" palestine by his definition is from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea
Not only what Walt D cites. That charter also claims all the land west of the Jordan for Israel. Check it out at the Knesset website.
IN 2000 THE PLO SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEPORTED TO TUNISIA > this not being done its failure as a means of solving the arab problem created by the british partition of the mandate in 1922 remains insoluble as no arab will agree to astate called israel
A political construct is not mortal, so talk of it being alive or dead is nonsense. If you want to say that the prospects are dim at the moment, that is one thing. But to day that they will never get brighter is to claim to know the future. If you do know the future, I don't know what you are, but you are certainly not just a Haaretz columnist.
Dear Mr. Strenger, your intellectual honesty is appreciated, and your understanding of the realities on the ground par excellence, but I am afraid you are ignoring one important variable from your equation – the attitudes of Arab countries + Turkey post-Arab-spring, and the importance of the Palestinian cause for them. IF you are right that the 2-state solution is dead then I am afraid the alternative for Israelis with a conscience will not be building a Civil Society Light but häving to prepare for a major regional war which could spread even further. As a result some of the past tragic chapters of Israel may pale in comparison. With this in mind, perhaps people like you should not put your intellectual arms to rest quite yet.
as long as there is one righteous person in this world who still fights for it.
80/20 might be closer to the truth. As for Intifadas --they were the oxygen that fuelled the illegal expansion and Israel made sure they created the circumstances under which an intifada would flourish. But Mr Stenger is right---the Two State solution is dead and the Zionist goal of a Greater Israel is dead with it.
in 10 years it will become real
On the other hand you are obsessing about how your current enemies will define your state. Looks like time-buying mechanism to steal more land. Anyway, the 2-state solution has died long ago (when Rabin was shot by a Jewish fanatic). It's now time for one state, two nations.
On the other hand you are obsessing about how your current enemies will define your state. Looks like time-buying mechanism to steal more land. Anyway, the 2-state solution has died long ago (when Rabin was shot by a Jewish fanatic). It's now time for one state, one vote, two nations.
that is the offer and very generous at that !
People who are not Jordanian citizens are not Jordanian.
Israel does not 'offer' nor makes 'concessions'. Israel occupies and must recongnize a palestinian state. End of story. You should be grateful for you have today : a nation built on erased palestinian cities and villages. You should keep quiet and accept the palestinians as a reality instead of claiming more and more and more.
Biblical ? you're far away from reality my friend. Israekl said so ? you want to impose force and brutality on a people ? fine by me. Just stop moaning and lamenting when violence accurs. You created it. Israel's occupation is against the law and justice will prevail. Stop talking about peace when you are not willing to pay the price for it.