Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia: Palestinians will seek to forge a single binational state if Israel carries out its threat to absorb parts of the West Bank. (Archives)
The apparent failure of yet another U.S. peace plan, the seemingly interminable Israeli-Palestinian violence and the ever-narrowing demographic gap between Jews and Arabs between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, have in recent months raised questions about the viability and longevity of the two-state solution.
It has also sparked debate, especially among Palestinians, over the idea of a single, binational state for Jews and Arabs.
The left in Israel has long warned that if settlement construction continues and Israel does not separate from the Palestinians, the country will eventually slide into an apartheid-like reality in which a Jewish minority rules over an Arab majority. The result, they contend: the end of a democratic, Jewish state.
Some on the right in Israel have responded with the argument that the Palestinians can be afforded voting rights in Jordan. But, with demographers predicting that Jewish-Arab parity is only a decade away, the fear voiced by the left has also begun to permeate right-wing thinking.
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently told Haaretz that, "More and more Palestinians are uninterested in a negotiated, two-state solution, because they want to change the essence of the conflict from an Algerian paradigm to a South African one. From a struggle against 'occupation,' in their parlance, to a struggle for one-man-one-vote. That is, of course, a much cleaner struggle, a much more popular struggle - and ultimately a much more powerful one. For us, it would mean the end of the Jewish state."
News Arafat: Time running out for two-state solution In an interview to the Guardian, the Palestinian leader blames Israel's construction of the West Bank separation fence and its settlement policy.
(25/01/04)
Features Too late for two-state? It is not written in stone that a two-state solution is the only outcome. Indeed, we may soon confront a reality in which such a solution is no longer possible.
Yossi Alpher (20/02/04)
Survival of the fittest Benny Morris says people were wrong in thinking his study on the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem was intended to undercut the Zionist enterprise.
Ari Shavit (08/01/04)
One-state awakening According to Daniel Gavron, the only solution that could preserve the Jewish state - partition into two states, Israel and Palestine - is no longer tenable.
Peter Hirschberg (10/12/03)
'Maximum Jews, minimum Palestinians' Determined that Israel not be drawn passively by events into demographic disaster, Ehud Olmert proposes an active, unilateral response.
David Landau (13/11/03)
Cry, the beloved two-state solution As talks lurch forward and the wall snakes its way through the West Bank, two veteran leftists no longer believe that there can be two states for two peoples.
Ari Shavit (06/08/03)
Opinion To the edge and back If there's no commitment to a two-state solution, there's no reason for the PA to exist. In a binational state, Hamas will be the ones to set the tone.
David Landau (16/01/04)
Back to the future in the PA About 30 years ago, the Palestinians favored the establishment of 'a democratic secular state' in the entire territory, which Israel rejected out of hand.
Danny Rubinstein (12/01/04)
Who's in favor of annihilating Israel? An NYU history professor has published an article in which he makes the case for establishing a binational state on the ruins of the State of Israel.
Yoel Esteron (28/11/03)
Which kind of binational state? Why did arrangements based on one state for two peoples work in various methods and places while the Oslo accords, based on territorial division, collapsed?
Meron Benvenisti (20/11/03)
The new game is no game A darker dimension of the new game is pursued by those Palestinians who believe that it is only a matter of time before they become masters of all Palestine.
Aaron David Miller (03/11/03)
From winning card to doomsday weapon Within a few years, Palestinian population growth will exceed Israel's and the Palestinians will demand their basic right - one man, one vote - in a unitary state.
David Landau (17/10/03)
The settlers and a binational state The settlers must be at the forefront of the liberation of Israel from the situation that is hurtling all of us into the binational scenario.
Yair Sheleg (31/08/03)
Israel can still be saved If we don't want a binational state and want to go on living in a democratic Jewish state, we have to stop the flow of Palestinians into Israel before it's too late.
Yehiam Prior (15/08/03)
Background and analysis Making threats, cultivating an image Qureia's words in favor of establishing a binational state echo recent statements in the Palestinian media by political activists and academics.
Danny Rubinstein (09/01/04)
The Peace Index / Demographic fears favor unilateral separation The strong desire for separation is connected to a fear among the vast majority of the Jewish public of the emergence of a de facto binational state.
Prof. Ephraim Yaar and Dr. Tamar Hermann (07/01/04)
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