Why there can’t be a two-state solution
What a refreshing change to read headlines that state, “Huckabee: No two-state solution under Trump.”
Apparently, incoming U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, understands that the tragic events of October 7th became the death knell for a two-state solution, despite the few stragglers who are still committed to the idea of co-existence between Palestinians and Jewish Israelis. So, while Huckabee need not be convinced, for those who still believes that the concept is still possible, maybe you’ll think otherwise after reading this.
Two particular stories, which appeared in last weekend’s Jerusalem Post, illustrate the reason why these two people groups are incapable of living peaceably together. The first article, entitled “Norwegian teen kicked out of convenience store for being a Jew,” relates an incident where a teen entered a store and naively struck a conversation with the Yemeni clerk, stating that as a Jew he longed to see a peaceful solution in the Middle East.
Despite the hopeful sentiments, expressed by a young person, who clearly had no ill-will for a foreigner with an accent, his comments were followed by an angry clerk, asking him if he was a Zionist. Responding, by saying, if it means “supporting the right of Jews to have their own state,” the answer is yes! It was at that point that the enraged clerk ordered the young man to immediately leave the store.
Although the teen came in to make a purchase, this conversation, which preceded that monetary exchange, never took place since the clerk was unwilling to have any further contact with an individual holding an opinion which caused was anathema to him. Despite the boy’s plea to just be permitted to buy a sausage, he was forced to exit the shop.
The second article, entitled, “Woke as an enemy of Jews and Israelis,” began by recounting an incident involving a young Jewish Israeli woman, living in Berlin, who was violently attacked on a subway, when someone spotted her pin, displaying the flags of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Once again, the young woman in question, who is known to be an active participant in a peace organization, advocating for justice for Palestinians, unashamedly wore her hopeful political yearnings on her lapel, literally turning herself into a walking advertisement for peaceful co-existence and mutual tolerance of two conflicting ethnicities.
What did both of these young, idealistic individuals have in common? The hope of a better future between Jews and Palestinians, believing that such a goal was possible if they willed it to be. In each case, there was the absence of malice, prejudice, personal disgust or even the slightest hint of suspicion that such positive positions, based on honor and respect of the other, would be met with anger, offense and physical harm.
While their good will can likely be chalked up to their young age and lack of life experiences, it’s hard to see their aspirations as anything but admirable and commendable, in the sense that they truly believed that their personal commitment to peace could supersede the worst instincts of hatred, suspicion and ignorance, all of the hallmarks embodied by those whose desire is to destroy and kill people they perceive as the enemy, rather than find a way to work through whatever it is that has been perpetuating an unsolvable feud.
In essence, what these two attackers were exemplifying, was their unyielding choice to remain in an ancient mindset, unable and unwilling to find any compromise solution in order to put an end to the fighting that is apparently an appendage of their identity, without which they would find themselves separated from a deplorable heritage which insists upon death and a complete conquering of a land they believe they must have, even if it was not theirs from the beginning.
Nonetheless, those who are the rightful inheritors, have been more than happy to make some kind of an accommodation for them, since the establishment of the State took place in 1948. To that end, countless peace proposals have been offered, by Israel, all in an attempt to co-exist, with mutual respect towards one another, but none was acceptable to them.
That has been evidenced by the map of Palestine, showing the entirety of Israel as its territory. It has also been evidenced by the phrase, “From the river to the sea,” which literally calls for the ousting of every Jew, residing in the sovereign land of Israel. It was also evidenced in the carefully planned events of October 7th, that aspired to commit a full-on genocide of the Israeli people and then take over their land, while plotting to push further and further into the center of the country, in a coordinated effort by both Hamas and Hezbollah.
Their large reserves of food and other supplies, in underground tunnels, confirmed their intent to wait it out for whatever time was required to complete their mission of ridding the Middle East of its Jewish population.
Such has been the mindset of the terrorists on our northern and southern borders – individuals who have no desire to make peace and find their way to a two-state solution and whose singular goal is one state for one people.
As hard as this may be for the proponents of the two-state solution, it is an unmistakable reality, with which they must come to terms, because the insistence of placing a square peg in a round hole is a doomed endeavor which must be abandoned by anyone who has clear vision and a sound mind.
The time has come, based on all the evidence, for these fantasies of a two-state solution, as a feasible idea, to be dismissed, once and for all, because they only serve to frustrate those who want to believe in it but then have an October 7th wake-up call. On that fated day, those naïve hopes held by some of those who were murdered, was the final proof that our neighbors refuse to live with Jews.
While we all despise the continued war and resultant deaths, which come from these an unsolvable conflict, outsiders have no choice but to come to the same conclusion which Israelis have been forced to internalize. It’s either them or us, because their only solution is our total annihilation. It’s not what we want, but it’s what we’ve been forced to confront.
It is the reason why there can’t be a two-state solution – because the fight is really over one state that one side is not willing to share.
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
