Why the Two-State Solution will fail

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Sabina Becker

A remarkable CBS report presents the unvarnished facts on the apartheid state being built by Israel in the West Bank:

In Part 1, we see how the apartheid has already taken hold–and how the West Bank and Gaza have been intentionally fractured in an effort to gradually appropriate ALL Palestinian lands for settlement by Israel. A Palestinian doctor talks about how he has been edged out of being able to work in Jerusalem, the city of his birth. An apartment building where Palestinians live is routinely occupied by the Israeli army under the pretext of using it (the highest building on the highest hill in Nablus) as a lookout point. If that is the case–if they only use it as a surveillance post–why do the soldiers chase people out of their own homes and bedrooms? Why are the women corralled? Why are the children not allowed back into their own house after school?

In Part 2, we see how unemployment and poverty are being used to drive Palestinians further and further into a corner. Palestinian workers are forced to build Israeli settlers’ compounds; Palestinian farmers are locked out of their own lands by the Wall of Shame. The unrepentant, intransigent arrogance of a settler mayor hammers it home. Will candidate Tzipi Livni keep her campaign promises and get the settlers out? The last time this solution was tried, the settlers made a huge to-do that embarrassed the government and weakened its will to evict illegal settlers. Meanwhile, Arabs are still being evicted from THEIR homes. Whatever could that mean?

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4 Responses to Why the Two-State Solution will fail

  1. BlastFurnace says:
    February 5, 2009 at 6:22 AM

    I saw this myself, but this isn’t exactly a new story. Frontline did something similar in 2005, focusing in particular on the followers of the late Meir Kahane setting up illegal settlements — and of course Kahane Chai – Kach is listed as a terrorist organization by Israel, Canada, the US and the EU.
    The strategy appears to be having so many exclaves of Israel that a Palestinian state becomes completely unworkable. This isn’t like Baarle on the Dutch-Belgian border with multiple enclaves on either side of the border. At least there is a bit of peace since everyone shares the same language and culture and they have found ways to exploit it including tourism (several honeymoon beds are “on the border,” so to speak).
    It is more reminiscent of the Cooch-Behar enclaves on the India-Pakistan border, including several counter-counter exclaves (i.e. India inside of Pakistan, inside of India, inside of Pakistan yet again) and the enclaves are virtual prison camps — you need a passport to get out and onto the main part of “your” country less than a mile away, and crossing the border a couple of times on the way. Hospitals and schools have their power cut off because they’re on the “wrong” side of the line, and that’s the least of the problems. India and Pakistan were supposed to solve this problem back in the 1980s but talks have been stalled ever since.
    What’s happening in the West Bank is no way to organize a people. Add in two groups who claim they’re the legitimate descendants of Abraham … not even Solomon who famously ordered a baby cut in half could figure this one out. And forcing Palestinians to go through multiple checkpoints on one road network while Jewish people and tourists get open sesame on another? That’s so wrong, on so many levels.

  2. Utpal says:
    February 5, 2009 at 11:21 AM

    The Cooch Behar enclaves are near the Indo-Bangladesh border, not Pakistan anymore.

  3. BlastFurnace says:
    February 5, 2009 at 6:39 PM

    My mistake. Of course, it’s Bangladesh!

  4. Utpal says:
    February 5, 2009 at 9:04 PM

    My family (including an ancestral home) is from Cooch Behar originally, actually 🙂

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