Foreign Affairs - 11.2019 - 12.2019

There Will Be a One-State Solution

November/December 2019 35

not possible (which it isn’t), the status

quo or one state with equal rights, they

chose the latter by a two-to-one margin.

The United States has been able to

secure what it desires most in the

Middle East—the steady Áow o‘ natural

resources—without a just peace. But

that has come at the price o‘ perpetual

instability. A shared state with equal

rights for all would serve U.S. interests

even better, because it would Änally

stabilize the region and generate

broader opportunities for economic

growth and political reform.

Israelis would beneÄt from a shift to

such a state, as well. They, too, would gain

security, stability, and growth, while also

escaping international isolation and

reversing the moral rot that the occupa-

tion has produced in Israeli society. At the

same time, they would maintain connec-

tions to historical and religious sites in the

West Bank. Most Israelis would far prefer

to perpetuate the status quo. But that is

just not possible. Israel cannot continue to

deny the rights o‘ millions o“ Palestinians

indeÄnitely and expect to remain a

normal member o‘ the international

community. The Middle Eastern version

o‘ apartheid will eventually be recognized

for what it is, and then Israel’s true

options will be clear: move to one state

with equal rights or become a pariah.

A NEW CONSTITUTION

Advocates o‘ equal rights for all must

take steps to make sure that “one-state

solution” does not become as empty a

slogan as “two-state solution.” To focus

and ground their vision, they should

therefore propose not only a new state but

also a new constitution. That would both

demonstrate their commitment to democ-

racy and highlight Israel’s lack o‘ the

has moved on, Arafat’s successors in the
Palestinian Authority still cling to the
peace process and the two-state solution.
Having sunk so much e
ort and credibil-
ity into their state-building project, they
are having di”culty letting go.
This accommodation should stop. The
time has come for the Palestinian Au-
thority to abandon its advocacy o‘ a
two-state solution, an idea that has
become little more than a Äg lea“ for the
United States and other great powers to
hide behind while they allow Israel to
proceed with de facto apartheid. Instead,
Palestinians should acknowledge the
reality that there is and always will be
only one state between the river and the
sea and focus their e
orts on making that
state a viable home for all o‘ the terri-
tory’s inhabitants, Jews and Arabs alike.
Some will object that such a shift in
strategy would undercut the hard-won
consensus, rooted in decades o‘ activism
and international law, that the Palestinians
have a right to their own state. That
consensus, however, has produced little for
the Palestinians. Countless ™£ resolutions
have failed to stop Israeli settlements or
gain Palestinians a state, so they wouldn’t
be losing much. And in a one-state
solution worthy o‘ the name, Palestinians
would win full equality under the law, so
they would be gaining a great deal.
The Trump administration will not
embrace the concept o‘ equal rights for
all inhabitants, including the Palestin-
ians. But American voters might. A poll
conducted last year by the University o‘
Maryland found that Americans were
roughly evenly split between supporting
a two-state solution and supporting a
one-state solution with equal rights for
all inhabitants. Yet when asked what they
preferred i‘ a two-state solution were