Tuesday, January 27, 2009

60 Minutes: Is the Two State Solution Doomed?





I've never understood the advantage for the Israelis in killing off the two state solution. In terms of the numbers game the Palestinians easily beat them. So, if they don't favour the two state solution, what do they favour? Expelling them? Keeping them in a permanent state of Apartheid? Or allowing them to participate in Israeli democracy, which would mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

I take some comfort from Livni's assertion that the settlers will be removed, although that will not be easy as you can see from the footage here. The word "settlements" is highly inadequate and implies much more flimsy structures than the towns we are looking at here.

I have always thought that the only way to get around this is to offer land swaps, and allow some settlements to remain whilst offering uninhabited parts of Israel to the Palestinians.

I am extremely pleased that Obama is making this such a high priority but, as we can see from this film, his task is gargantuan.

UPDATE:

I see President Carter has come to the same conclusion that I have:

“If we look toward a one-state solution, which seems to be the trend — I hope not inexorable — it would be a catastrophe for Israel, because there would be only three options in that case,” Carter said.

One would be to expel large numbers of Palestinians, which he said would amount to “ethnic cleansing.”

The second would be to deprive the Palestinians of equal voting rights, which he said would amount to “apartheid.”

The third would be to give the Palestinians equal voting rights, and therefore the majority, he said.

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