ENCOUNTERING PEACE: The republic of Israel-Palestine?

I felt at home during my first visit to Israel in 1969 for my bar mitzvah, and knew that my place was with my people. From as early as 1975 at the age of 19 I made the decision that Israel was going to be my home, and three years later it was. During that same year I became much more deeply aware of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict and, from a Zionist position, published my first op-ed piece in a Jewish newspaper calling for a two-state solution. Since that time I have believed and advocated that in order to ensure Israel’s future as the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people, it is essential that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be resolved.

 

Understanding that the roots of this conflict are in the willingness of both the Jewish people in Israel and our Palestinian neighbors to fight, die and kill for a territorial expression of their identity, the only resolution to the conflict is territorial partition – two states for two peoples. I am completely convinced that this is the only solution, but with the passing of time and the failure of all attempts thus far to arrive at that solution, have tried to entertain the possibility that partition may not happen.

 

As an academic, intellectual exercise I tried to imagine what a peaceful solution to this conflict could look like that did not entail partition – the so-called “one state solution.” If solution means end of conflict, then it is clear that that state would not be the nation state of the Jewish people, or the nation state of the Palestinian people. If the intent is solution, then it would have to be a democratic state.

 

Read More: ENCOUNTERING PEACE: The republic of Israel-Palestine? – Opinion – Jerusalem Post