Why Israel and Palestine Must Become One State

By George Thomas Clark

In April last year I wrote a column noting there will always be intolerable discord between Jews and Arabs until Israel helps Palestine build a free and independent state. This is not a fantasy--fantastic is the continuing belief that current trends will ever lead to peace. Growing numbers of Israeli Jews want Israeli Arabs to emigrate; emigrate where? No one is leaving; this isn't the late 1940's when almost a million Arabs lived in what is now Israel; shortly after the end of the first Arab-Israeli war all but one hundred seventy thousand had been evicted and forced to live in squalid refugee camps.

Building an independent Palestine, I continued, would be an enormous first step in resolving the critical problem of Israeli Jewish settlers living in occupied territory. Those who choose to stay could become citizens of Palestine and vote and run for office, as Israeli Arabs already do. Some day, this would likely result in an Israeli Arab becoming prime minister of Israel and a Palestinian Jew serving as prime minister of Palestine. Furthermore, a peaceful and democratic Palestine would lessen tensions within Israel where more than twenty percent of the citizens are Arabs; that portion will continue to increase.

This assessment is headed the right way but, as Israel and Hezbollah pulverize each other, it does not reach far enough. Indeed, Israel and Palestine are ultimately going to have to become one nation, one republic unbound by either absolute racial identity or distorted religious doctrines. A Jewish state? A Palestinian state? The very terms are anachronistic and insulting. Arabs and Jews must unite as fellow citizens. This optimistic scenario cannot be impossible. It is possible because it is mandatory. Eternal and growing hostility is no alternative.

Seminal changes must come before the inevitable state of peace delineated above. Hezbollah, despite its popularity in southern Lebanon, will have to accept a demilitarized zone that removes the danger of missile attacks against Israel. And, ending years of obstinacy, all Arab political entities must declare that Israel has a right to exist. That singular commitment, backed by peaceful steps, should compel Israel to remove every settlement from the West Bank, as it already has in Gaza, and in time defuse much of the tension there. At that point Israel will likely tear down a wall destined to last far fewer years than its unsightly counterpart in Berlin.

A flourishing, multi-ethnic Israeli democracy would evoke empathy throughout the Middle East and encourage the Syrians to demand more than an oppressive Assad dynasty. A free Lebanon would again enjoy economic and cultural success. And what about Iran? The Persian nation will probably not rush to join the vanguard of democratic nations. But, as its leaders become older in spirit as well as flesh, the young people of Iran in an electronic age are learning about freedom, and shall one day seize it.

© 2005 George Thomas Clark