Why This Demonstrates That One-State is Delusional

Over the four years I’ve been making “Holy Land” and engaged in the issues around the Israeli-Palestine conflict, it has seemed that interest in a “one-state” solution has grown. It became trendy. Give up on the two-state solution? OK, let’s try a one-state solution. The upsurge in violence over the past two weeks, in my view, is a powerful rebuke to the one-state idea. Barak Ravid writes eloquently to this point in today’s Haaretz (subscription required):

“when Palestinian murderers are running amok on the streets of Jerusalem armed with knives, the citizens of Israel are getting a first significant glimpse into the reality of a binational state; a little taste of what is to come if, instead of breaking apart into two states, the Israelis and Palestinians continue to move toward a single state.”

“…The explosion that we are experiencing is part of an “atomization” of the conflict; the fight isn’t against the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, but against an entire generation of young Palestinians, some of them kids, who don’t see a future for themselves. They are frustrated, desperate and incensed. They hate Israel as much as they hate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the current situation, the capability of dealing with the situation is limited. There are many means of defense – deploying troops to Jerusalem, severe punishment, closures, arrests and house demolitions. But even if this quells the current wave of unrest, the calm would be only temporary – until the next one, which will be even more difficult.”