One-state Solution?

October 10, 2011

The Palestinian version
of a one-state solution He slammed the land-for-peace concept as unworkable given the circumstances. According to Ettinger, the two-state solution on one hand and the survival of the Jewish State on the other hand constitutes an oxymoron. Instead, he proposed granting democratic rights to Palestinians in the West Bank (or biblically, Judea and Samaria) while maintaining a peace based on deterrence.

“A two-state solution is a concept detached completely from Middle Eastern reality,” said Ettinger. “Anybody who is familiar with the topography, geography and the political reality in the wide context of the Middle East knows that there’s no room for two states—especially two potentially actively rivaling states between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean…When it comes to the only viable solution consistent with the existence of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, that solution means a full control by the Jewish State of the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.”

He described a one-state solution plan in which Israel would maintain its Jewish character while also maintaining democratic rights given to its minorities. The plan would eventually involve Israel formally annexing Judea and Samaria as Israeli territory, having first cleared out that region of those connected to terrorism. At that point, the Palestinians not connected in any way to terrorism would be granted Israeli citizenship, which would give them access to human rights not truly enjoyed by the general public in numerous states, including Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia—rights that are today enjoyed by Israeli Arabs and include the right for each person to vote and to criticize the government.

Caroline Glick, a journalist whose work appears in The Jerusalem Post, also espoused the idea of a one-state solution. She wrote that Israel only has two options, “suicide or annexation.” Glick said, “Either the Palestinians form a terror state from which it will wage war against the shrunken, indefensible Jewish state or Israel expands the size of the Jewish state.”

Hamas A majority of Palestinians would also like a one-state solution, although the state they envision does not include a Jewish population or an Israel. Only one in three Palestinians (34%) accept two states for two peoples as the solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, according to an intensive, face-to-face survey in Arabic of 1,010 Palestinian adults in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, conducted by American pollster Stanley Greenberg. The poll was conducted in partnership with the Beit Sahour-based Palestinian Center for Public Opinion and sponsored by the Israel Project, an international non-profit organization that provides journalists and leaders with information about the Middle East.

Respondents were asked about US President Barack Obama’s statement that “There should be two states: Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people and Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people.” Just 34% said they accepted that concept, while 61% rejected it. Sixty-six percent said the Palestinians’ real goal should be to start with a two-state solution but then move to it all being one Palestinian state.

The Bible clearly states that God gave this land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God also calls for others living in the land to be treated with justice. His somber message for the nations of the world in Joel 3 warns that they will be judged for how they treat Israel, including dividing up the land: “I will also gather all nations…and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land” (v. 2).

Source: By Rebecca J. Brimmer, International President and CEO