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The Two State Delusion
In 1937, when the British controlled Palestine, they came up with the only logical solution to the Jewish/Arab conflict. The Peel Commission proposed two states for two people. Just one problem with the proposal. The Arabs wouldn’t accept a Jewish State. Instead, Arab leadership incited riots and the murder of Jewish civilians.
In 1947 after Britain gave up trying to rule Palestine, the UN had the same solution. Two states for two people. The Arab nations refused to accept a Jewish state. The Arabs declared war and tried to kill or otherwise dispel all Jews from the land. They failed.
More wars followed. In 1967 Israel stunned the world with a military victory where we conquered the Golan Heights from Syria, Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt. Israel proposed a two-state solution. The Arabs came back from their conference in Khartoum and said no. No to a Jewish State.
But we did not give up this delusion of trying to create a Palestinian state with Palestinians who refused to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors. We hoped and prayed that if we just offered enough, the Palestinians would agree to live with us in peace. Finally, in 1993, under the Oslo accords, it seemed possible. The Palestinian leadership agreed on a peace process that would lead to two states for two people.
That did not last long. Turns out the Palestinians didn’t really want two states for two people. They wanted two states for the Palestinians. One Palestinian state on the east with its capital in Jerusalem where no Jews could live and one Palestinian state to the west where Jews would be allowed to remain as a minority.
Israel did not agree. So the Palestinians incited the Intifada. And the second Intifada. Israel built a wall to protect Israeli citizens from continued Arab terrorist attacks. And the world condemned Israel for building a wall.
But we Jews are a stubborn people. We do not give up so easily. Because the truth is, we don’t want the Palestinians in our country any more than Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudia Arabia or any other country wants them.
Israel unilaterally decided to give up Gaza in 2005. We sent in our army and forcibly ejected Jews from their homes where they had lived for almost 40 years. The Gaza withdrawal was extremely divisive. I was on the wrong side. I supported the withdrawal. That didn’t work out.
Still, leaders are calling for two states for two people. But it is delusional. The Palestinian leadership simply hate the Jews. And they hate the USA. No matter how much aid the Americans give them, they continue to hate the USA.
There are two peoples. There is enough room for us to live together in peace. But we are delusional because the Palestinians do not want to live together in peace. The Palestinians want to kill us. Not all of the Palestinians, just 75% of them.
The pogrom on October 7th has finally woken me up to reality. We have to stop thinking that if we just offer enough, the Palestinians will want to live with us in peace. There is too much hatred that has been sown over generations by their corrupt leadership. Even after suffering under Hamas rule for almost 20 years, the Palestinians of Gaza still support Hamas. And Hamas wants to kill all the Jews. And after Hamas kills us, they will kill anyone else who doesn’t agree with their vision of fundamental Islam. The only solution is the one proposed by Jabotinsky 100 years ago in his famous essay entitled, “The Iron Wall.” In short, the path to peace does not depend on what Israel does, but entirely on the Palestinians’ willingness to accept a Jewish state.
I live in Haifa in peace with Muslim Arabs. Peace with Arabs is possible. But only when they want it. And the Palestinians do not want it. And nothing we can give them will make them want it. There are still too many people who hold onto this delusion that they can create two states for two people if we just give more incentives to the Palestinians. These people are the problem. Because these people blame Israel for the fact that the Palestinians do not want to live with us in peace. They blame the so-called occupation. Arabs build houses on disputed territory and that is ok. A Jew building a house on disputed territory is an outrageous crime. It’s not even ok for a Jew to buy land from an Arab. A Palestinian selling land to a Jew is subject to the death penalty.
As long as the world continues to blame the Jews for the failure of the two-state solution, the Palestinians will continue to reject peace with a Jewish State. When the Palestinians come to peace with the fact that the Jewish Nation of Israel lives then the Palestinians will be able to live in peace with the Jewish Nation of Israel.
I want to end with two quotes from Golda Meir.
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”
“We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs – we have no place else to go