Unparallel universes: Iran and israel’s one-state solution

Global Society

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 353-376

  Behar, Moshe ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 80053963796     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: 1469798X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600826.2011.577031     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. Don Peretz, “A Binational Approach to the Palestine Conflict”, Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 33, No. 1 (1968), pp. 32–43.
2. “Israelis, Palestinians and Multinationalism”, Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1973), pp. 90–104.
3. Two early rigorous articles regretfully unmentioned in the 1S2S exchange.
4. Irene L. Gendzier, “Palestine and Israel: The Binational Idea”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1975), pp. 12–35.
5. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, “Exile amidst Sovereignty: A Critique of ‘Negation of the Exile’ in Israeli Culture” (part i), Theory and Criticism, Vol. 4 (1993), pp. 23–55 (and part ii) Theory and Criticism, Vol. 5 (1994), pp. 113–132 (in Hebrew).
6. Meron Benvenisti, Intimate Enemies: Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
7. Jenab Tutunji and Kamal Khaldi, “A Binational State in Palestine: The Rational Choice for Palestinians and the Moral Choice for Israelis”, International Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 1 (1997), pp. 31–58.
8. Ghada Karmi, “After Oslo: A Single State in Israel/Palestine?”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1998), pp. 212–226.
9. Ghazi-Walid Falah, “The Geopolitics of ‘Enclavisation’ and the Demise of a Two-state Solution to the Israeli– Palestinian Conflict”, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 8 (2005), pp. 1341–1372.
10. Virginia Q. Tilley, The One-state Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock (Detroit: University of Michigan Press, 2005).
11. Yosef Gorni, From Binational Society to Jewish State: Federal Concepts in Zionist Political Thought, 1920–1990, and the Jewish People (Leiden: Brill, 2006).
12. Jamil Hilal, Where Now for Palestine? The Demise of the Two State Solution (London: Zed, 2007).
13. George E. Bisharat, “Maximizing Rights: The One State solution to the Palestinian–Israeli Conflict”, Global Jurist, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2008), pp. 1–36.
14. Alexander Yakobson and Amnon Rubinstein, Israel and the Family of Nations: The Jewish Nation-state and Human Rights (New York: Routledge, 2009).
15. Benny Morris, One State, Two States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
16. Gary Sussman, “Is the Two-state Solution Dead?”, Current History, Vol. 103, No. 669 (2004), pp. 37–43.
17. Daniel Gavron, The Other Side of Despair: Jews and Arabs in the Promised Land (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
18. Ali Abunimah, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli–Palestinian Impasse (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006).
19. David C. Unger, “The Inevitable Two-state Solution”, World Policy Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3 (2008), pp. 59–67.
20. In addition to Meron Benvenisti, Uri Avnery, Azmi Bishara, Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jamil Hilal, Moshe Machover, Amnon Raz-Krakotskin, Salim Tamari, Oren Yiftachel, Ilan Pappe, Benny Morris, Rashid Khalidi, As’ad Ghanem, Sammy Smooha and Michael Neumann. 4. United States: 9,629,091; Egypt: 1,002,000; United Kingdom: 242,900; Syria: 185,180; Jordan: 89,342; Lebanon: 10,452. Note
21. Peace Now, “Eight Months into the Settlement Freeze” (August 2010), available:, http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&docid=4747&pos=0.
22. All the websites referenced in this article were accessed on 20 November 2010.
23. Maya Bengal, “Netanyahu: ‘We Managed to Bring National Agreement on ‘Two States for Two Peoples’”, Maariv (5 July 2009) (in Hebrew), available:, http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/ 912/102.html.
24. Full text available:, http://kadima.org.il/upload/file/medinit.pdf.. (emphasis added; translations from Hebrew are mine). Note
25. Full text available:, http://www.archavoda.org.il/avodaarch/matza/pdf/knesset18.pdf.. (emphasis added). 9. Peace Now. Note
26. Texts of these initiatives are accessible online.
27. For the full list and activities of these MKs see, http://www.myesha.org.il/?CategoryID= 251&ArticleID=3753.
28. “The Lobby against Two States”, YNET (2 February 2010), available:, http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3843257,00.html
29. See Appendix B for Israeli bodies and parties that voice in clearer terms Israeli pro-settlement views and anti-two-state arrangements. Note
30. Tille., p. 206.
31. Not a single poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) during the last decade indicated otherwise; see, http://www.pcpsr.org/index.html. Note
32. Salim Tamari, “The Dubious Lure of Binationalism”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1 (2000), pp. 83–87.
33. Uri Avnery, “A Binational State? God Forbid!”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4 (1999), pp. 55–61.
34. Yael Yishai, “Israeli Annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights: Factors and Processes”, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1 (1985), pp. 45–60.
35. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Israel, 1992–2006 and List of Localities, the Populations, and Symbols, 1995–2005; Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1991–2004). See also Note
36. Moshe Behar, “The Peace Process and Israeli Domestic Politics in the 1990s”, Socialism and Democracy, Vol. 16, No. 2 (2002), pp. 34–48.
37. B’TSELEM—The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, By Hook and By Crook: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank (Jerusalem: B’TSELEM, 2010), available:, http://www.btselem.org/english/publications/summaries/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook.asp. Note
38. Stephen Walt, “Will Israel Bomb Iran?”, Foreign Policy (November 2010), available:, http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/11/mainstreaming_war_with_iran.
39. It must be added that, since 1967, Israel has ceaselessly attempted to minimise the number of Palestinians in Jerusalem/West Bank by a rainbow of legal, bureaucratic and other (so-called) non-violent/velvet means: Palestinian misery is not coincidental but aims to produce emigration. For a particularly brazen attempt scrutinise military orders 1649 and 1650 (13 October 2009) that legally define—however remarkably—all West Bank residents as “infiltrators” who may be jailed and deported. English versions in HAMOKED, Center for the Defence of the Individual, available:, http://www.hamoked.org.il/news_main_en.asp?id=904. Note
40. Amos Harel, “Kol Haaretz Tilim Tilim” [Missiles across All Israeli Skies], Haaretz (16 April 2010), available:, http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1163365.html.
41. I do not mention (possible) non-Israeli (Arab/Iranian) casualties/harm exclusively due to their irrelevancy vis-a`-vis the argument advanced. Of course, Arab/Iranian lives are as precious as Israeli/Palestinian lives. Note
42. Abdullah Toukan and Anthony Cordesman, Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Development Facilities (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009), available:, http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/090316_israelistrikeiran.pdf.
43. Paul Rogers, Military Action against Iran: Impact and Effects (Oxford: Oxford Research Group, 2010), pp. 10–12.
44. Avi Shlaim, “The Debate about 1948”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (1995), pp. 287–304.
45. Tom Segev, 1967: Israel, the War and the Year that Transformed the Middle East (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007).
46. R. Bowker, Palestinian Refugees: Mythology, Identity, and the Search for Peace (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2003).
47. BADIL, From the 1948 Nakba to the 1967 Naksa, Occasional Bulletin No. 18 (June 2004). Note
48. See full report by Israel Broadcasting Company, available:, http://www.iba.org.il/bet/?type= 1&entity=680286. Note
49. See Tilley, op. cit., pp. 6–7 and Israel’s leading military historian. Note
50. Martin Van-Creveld, “Sharon’s Plan is to Drive Palestinians across the Jordan”, Sunday Telegraph (28 April 2002).
51. Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (United Nations Human Rights Council, September 2009, A/HRC/12/48), p. 254 (i.e. the “Goldstone Report”). Note
52. Tony Judt, “Israel: The Alternative”, New York Review of Books, Vol. 60, No. 16 (23 October 2003).
53. For example Michal Kaminski and Roberts Zile (of the Polish Justice and Freedom Party), Gian-franco Fini (of the Italian Allianza Nazionale), Filip Dewinter (of the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Blok), Pia Kjærsgaard and Peter Skaarup (of the Danish People’s Party) and Geert Wilders (of the Dutch Party for Freedom). As the leader of the third largest Dutch party since 2006, Wilders called (already in 2006) for the name of Jordan to be changed to Palestine and to enable Israeli to annex the West Bank. Wilders is adored by many Israeli Jews who deem his anti-Muslim politics correct and courageous. Note
54. The best sources on Israel’s settlement expansion are Peace Now, available:, http://www. peacenow.org.il/site/en/homepage.asp. Note
55. Foundation for Middle East Peace, available:, http://www.fmep.org/. Note
56. See footnotes 15–17. Readers who honestly (rather than kneejerkingly) find the concept “Nakba by velvet-means” unsettling have an obligation to gather and read all the articles/essays written by Israeli journalist Amira Hass since the late 1980s. Note
57. Oren Yiftachel, “‘Creeping Apartheid’ in Israel–Palestine”, Middle East Report, Vol. 39, No. 253 (2009), pp. 7–37.
58. Farlex’s theFreeDictionary online (emphasis added).
59. Tilley, p. 9.
60. http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/02/1403.htm.
61. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38487969/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts.
62. http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3346275,00.html.
63. http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1187226.html.
64. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102907404.html.
65. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/the-point-of-no-return/8186/.
66. While immodest Morris failed in his projected timeline, the circumstances endure and cannot make anyone jolly. Note
67. http://www.hatikva.org.il/landing_3_11_10/hoveret_hatikva_english.pdf.
68. http://www.hayozma.org/SiteContent/Pdf/01_ltr.pdf.
69. http://www.sos-israel.com/en.html.