Halpern: No One-State solution

I'm thinking

by Micah D. Halpern

Issue of February 5, 2010/ 21 Shvat 5770

World leaders and diplomats always have one plan on the table, one plan in the drawer and one plan on the shelf. The Palestinians, in the hope of pushing Israel and by extension the United States towards a resolution of the Palestinian/Israeli problem, are dusting off their plan on the shelf. They are reviving talk of a one-state solution.

While I am not an advocate of the one-state solution, neither am I in total opposition to the idea, threatened by the concept, or fearful for the future of Israel. A one-state solution, as advocated by the Arab world, is not only an empty threat, it is an impractical solution to the problem.

Those world leaders advocating for one Palestinian/Israeli state would be shocked to learn that the concept dates back to Zionist ideologues that understood that the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East would necessitate rapprochement with local Arabs.

One of the configurations they seized upon was the idea of a single state, that they termed a Bi-National state. Supporters were known as bi-nationalists and the most notable among them was Martin Buber.

At the time there was no entity called the Palestinian movement and the definition of a Palestinian, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was a Jew living in Palestine.

The idea was discarded by Zionist thinkers as impractical. Years later, it was picked up and championed by Israelis and others including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and even Libyan leader Muammar Ghadaffi who named his plan “Isratine.” The Arab world never refers to the state as Bi-National because that would imply that Israeli Jews would have significant long-term rights, and that is not a part of their plan.

Palestinian and other Arab leaders envision a state that would begin with two nations living in one country, with one government, that would, in short time, become one Palestinian-only nation. They are convinced that the only weapon they need is the Palestinian birth rate.

Statistics prove otherwise. The birth rate of Arab citizens of Israel is dropping significantly and the birthrate of Jews continues to climb. Generally speaking, the more educated the community in the Arab world the fewer children they have.

That is now the case with the Palestinians. There are substantial risks to the Bi-National state. First is the Jewish nature of Israel, but Palestinians will fail miserably at trying to take over Israel through their secret weapon — the womb.

Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, is threatening Israel by saying that if a two-state solution is not immediately negotiated, he will force the one-state solution that, in his mind, means the end of Israel. This type of wishful thinking, common among Arab leaders, is sometimes couched as democratic thinking and called bi-nationalism, as was espoused by Tony Judt in his infamous essay that ran in the New York Review of Books.

If a one-state solution ever came into being, if Israelis and Palestinians were to live as one nation, under one flag, democracy would be seriously challenged. But the map would once again include the West Bank. If Israelis and Palestinians were to live as one nation, Palestinians would be provided with a better infrastructure and be better educated and Israel would have better access to intelligence on terror.

And there would be a serious crackdown on unlawful activity. And immoral, corrupt Palestinian leadership would be ousted by their irrelevance.

Palestinian leaders can threaten, but if One-State comes into existence, the Palestinian dream of a Palestinian state will die. Palestinians will be living in the State of Israel; Israelis will not be in a Palestinian state. The idea of an independent Palestinian state will be dwarfed by the success of living in highly technical, sophisticated Israel.

One-State will fail because Palestinian nationalism will fail. One-State failed in Lebanon. It failed in Pakistan, it failed in Yugoslavia and it will fail for Israelis and Palestinians.