Nissim, extremists and Arab Nations like to play the Palestinian card. They play it for their own interest. As for a 2 state solution, what will the map of Palestine and Israel look like, when I have to drive from Jerusalem to Bethlehem I have to go in a zig zag to avoid illegal jewish settelments on the way. That was a simple example. so imagine the rest. Do you think Israel will let Palestinians have their own border police, control their border crossings, have tanks, weapons, who are we kidding here? then why have a Jewish state? Shouldn’t Christians claim that land as thiers since Jesuse Christ was from there. The solution is only one state for all.

Israel will have no reason to cooperate unless its security and identity could be guaranteed. A one-state solution will inevitably result in the destruction of the Jewish state because Jews will be outnumbered, and therefore, voted out of power. And Jews around the world are convinced that in light of a 2000 years, they must have a state of their own to survive.

However, even within the framework of a two-state solution, it is possible, Ali, to achieve almost all of your suggestions. Most of the settlements will have to be dismantled, in order to create a viable state for the Palestinians, but that can be done, as was suggested in the proposal made by Ehud Barack in the year 2000.

What your plan doesn’t seem to address is; What do you do with the extremists in the region who have no intention of allowing a peace treaty to take place?

1.) When the Palestinians elected Hamas in 2006, they elected an antisemitic organization.

2.) Lebanon, a country of great diversity, is bitterly divided between the factions, had a civil war, and their quasi-democracy is ineffective. Can you imagine a political party that gets its weapons from abroad? Think in the perspective of a westerner, I am talking about Hezbollah.

3.) Cyprus has in effect divided the country into two between the Greeks and Turks. It’s peaceful there. Actually the UN built an “Apartheid” wall there.

A one state solution is all nice and fuzzy, but this is the Middle East we are talking about. Semites are a tribal people. At least Israelis don’t vote the way their “clan” does. But the Palestinians are still divided into clans just like in Iraq. Israelis have their own form of tribalism but it doesn’t spill into the political and commercial arena. The only way forward for the Palestinians is the two state-solution.

Shmoo, it is funny that you return the ugly images of a few hundreds of people who were dancing in the street. We as Arabs and Palestinians hate violence and denounced many times the 9/11 tragedy. Because those hundreds of people do not present the 1 billion Muslims in this world. And by the way, did you ever think what happened to the 4,000 Christian Palestinians who were bombed by Israel? What ever Hamas mistake was, it just doesn’t justify the killing of Children and women, if it does then we aee not considered humans anymore!

I think you have some good ideas in this post and I agree with most of what you say. However, I vehemently disagree with your support of the one state solution. The one state solution basically calls for the destruction of Israel. Calling for such a solution only empowers right wing forces in both Israel and the Jewish diaspora.