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One state for Israelis and Palestinians is 'utopian'

http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000482.htm

07/05/2006

Some South Africans are obsessed with the idea of a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No doubt this stems from South Africa's own recent experience: throughout the apartheid era, remember, the Afrikaner Nationalists sought to impose separate development, dividing and ruling through a series of tribal mini-states while retaining the bulk of the land for whites; however, the majority desire for a single, undivided country triumphed and the new South Africa came into being.

If it worked in South Africa then it will work for Israelis and Palestinians, so the argument goes. Blame the Jews who will not let it happen.

If only reality was as simple as that. Unfortunately, a one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians looks more attractive the further away you are from the Middle East and the less you know and understand the history, the fears and the passions.

Logically, of course, a one-state solution is desirable. In this tiny part of the world, with two Semitic peoples living in close proximity, they stand to gain by being together. The problem, however, is that on the ground, most people don't want it. Among the Jewish Israelis who form 80% of the population it's a non-starter, except among a marginal element.

The reasons are straightforward. The whole point of the existence of Israel is to provide a national home for Jews, a sanctuary after many centuries of anti-Semitic savage and deadly persecution. Within the bitter memory of many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, who are alive today, the world's nations during the 1930s and 1940s refused to admit Europe's Jews - who eventually perished in Nazi gas chambers. The sanctuary was won in 1948 through a vote of the United Nations. There is not the remotest chance that the overwhelming bulk of Jews will yield on this. It underpins all attitudes and actions, both for good and for ill.

There was a time when some Zionists argued for a shared state between Jews and Arabs. That dream largely died in 1929 when an Arab uprising in Palestine led to mass killings of Jews. These days, for Jews, the only relevance of a one-state solution is that it is held up by the left as an awful warning of the demographic consequences of not quitting the West Bank.

Among Palestinians, the official policy enunciated by the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas, and confirmed as the majority view in public opinion surveys, is for a two-state future. They know that Israel is not going to vote itself out of existence so there is no point in pressing for one state. In any event, what attraction could one state offer to Palestinians? To enter into a society where, for the foreseeable future and for historical reasons, Jews would have a lock on the economy, on business, on the universities, medicine, law, education, the army and on art, music and literature?

The Palestinians who persist in demanding a one-state solution are those who want to destroy Israel because it is a Jewish state. That is their declared aim. It's in the Hamas Charter of 1988. It is equally so with Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the rest.

One South African commentator refers to the recently published book "Seeking Mandela" by the Canadian academics, Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley. The book is full of detail in examining possible analogies and differences between South Africa and Israel/Palestine and requires careful reading. It cannot be enlisted to support a one-state solution. These are some of the book's key assessments:



"Although Israel and apartheid South Africa are often equated as 'colonial settler societies,' we argue that the differences outweigh the similarities. This analysis questions these popular analogies. We believe that when policy makers and political activists reach a more nuanced understanding of the two disparate situations, they are likely to turn away from simplistic emulations of anti-apartheid struggles against Israel and search for more realistic compromises ..." (page 19)

" ... the simplistic assumption that the South African model readily lends itself to export may actually retard necessary new solutions by clinging to visions or processes of negotiation that may not work in another context."(page 19)


In light of strong Jewish feelings against one state, "the idea is indeed unrealistic and utopian." (page 110).

Benjamin Pogrund, Jerusalem

This article was published by the University of Pretoria Centre for International Political Studies (CIPS) and is reproduced here by permission.

 

This article was first published on the Web at URL http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000482.htm     at http://www.mideastweb.org/log

Copyright by the author and University of Pretoria Centre for International Political Studies (CIPS) 

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