Two-state solution one too many

It’s time to admit that the “two-state solution” is no longer a desirable option for resolving the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Nationalism has failed both Israeli Jews and Palestinians, leaving the field open for a more forward-looking idea: a single democratic state for all who live in it.

The two-state solution has been at the center of the peace process for years, but its time has passed. It is based on a denial of how Israel was created, and, while the moral arguments for having a separate Jewish state are compelling in the abstract, such a state can only be maintained through the violent removal and repression of Palestine’s indigenous Arab population. A one-state solution would enable Israeli Jews to live together without doing so at the further expense of their Palestinian neighbors.

The realities of Israeli colonization have rendered a two-state solution impossible anyway. Roughly 400,000 Israeli Jews live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in settlements that, while illegal under international law, have an increasing aura of permanence. More than 1 million Palestinians live inside Israel. So it is no more feasible to create a viable and territorially contiguous Palestinian state than it is to maintain the convenient fiction that Israel is a “Jewish” state. The two populations are mixed.

In effect, we already have one state, but it is a state that denies equal rights to the non-Jews who live there. Giving everyone equal rights would not require anyone to move, nor would it require ethnic or religious gerrymandering. It would require that Israeli Jews choose real democracy and multiculturalism over apartheid and the fantasy of a “pure” Jewish state. This is a significant risk but a risk worth taking.

There are also ethical advantages to the one-state solution in today’s increasingly connected, multicultural world, where the ability to live peacefully amidst difference has become paramount. The implicit argument that the world is best divided among separate ethnic, religious and national groups is a 19th-century way of thinking, and it is out of touch with the fact that Israel, while rife with inequality and violence, is nonetheless a multicultural space.

We need a 21st-century solution that embraces this reality. Much like Nelson Mandela’s vision of a post-apartheid South Africa and President Obama’s hopeful vision for the United States, a democratic Israel/Palestine that eschews exclusive nationalism in favor of inclusive multiculturalism could inspire the world.

Equally important, the one-state solution would help eliminate a source of regional and global insecurity. If Palestinians truly have equal rights, Hamas and other Islamic extremists will lose one of the primary ideological legs on which they have been standing. Meanwhile, the U.S. can begin to repair its global image and seek true reconciliation with the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Some will argue that because of decades of violence, Palestinians and Israelis cannot possibly live together. Such a shortsighted view jars with the deeply held American faith in democracy, tolerance and equal rights. Other settler societies, most notably South Africa, have made tremendous strides in overcoming patterns of violence and enmity whose historical roots are much deeper than those in the Middle East.

Others may argue that America will never stop providing Israel with unconditional backing for its policy of dominating the Palestinians. To date, the Obama team has said little to dispel this concern. Yet the recent assault on Gaza calls for a discussion about the need to prevent Israel from continuing down the destructive path of settler-colonial violence. Once this discussion begins, it will be difficult for supporters of Israeli militarism to regain control of the debate.

The Obama administration has a unique opportunity to take its vision of transformation and apply it to a conflict badly in need of fresh solutions. Obama and his advisers should look beyond the tired slogans and formulas associated with the underachieving “peace process.” It’s time for a truly democratic, multicultural approach to the conflict. It’s time for the one-state solution.

> John Collins teaches global studies at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., and is the author of “Occupied by Memory: The Intifada Generation and the Palestinian State of Emergency.”