[Marxism] CBS on the one-state solution

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Complete article here; I'm just posting the "analysis" portion of it:
 
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/09/wedeman.israel.elections.westbank/index.html

Since the last election in the spring of 2006, Palestinians have seen Israel 
and Hezbollah go to war, West Bank settlements continue to expand, Hamas and 
Fatah fight it out in Gaza with Hamas taking control in June 2007.

They've also seen a series of Israeli incursions into Gaza, culminating 
recently in the 22-day Israeli offensive that left large parts of the strip in 
ruins.

Meanwhile many Palestinians say their leadership -- often described as moderate 
and pro-western -- in Ramallah is incapable of reversing the trend of 
settlement expansion.

The same leadership has been unable to convince Israel to remove few of the 
hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints that make travelling around the West 
Bank a test of patience and endurance.

In short, when Palestinians look back over the last 15 years since the Oslo 
Accords were signed, they've seen their lot only go from bad to worse.

As a result, more and more Palestinians are convinced the only way to beat the 
Israelis is to join them, to discard failed attempts at creating a Palestinian 
state in an ever smaller, ever more economically unviable territory, and go for 
what is known as the one-state solution.

That would mean Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza relinquishing their 
dream of an independent Palestinian state, and instead insisting on equal 
rights in the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, an area 
that is, for all intents and purposes, under Israel's control anyway.

The one-state solution is an anathema to many Israelis, who are well aware 
that, with their higher birth-rate, Palestinians (those living within Israel 
proper, plus Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza) could well become a majority 
within a generation.

Israelis increasingly worry the national struggle between Israel and the 
Palestinians will be transformed into an internal struggle, for equal rights 
for all those living within historic Palestine.

Those fears prompted Israel's current caretaker prime minister, Ehud Olmert, to 
warn as far back as November 2007 that if Israel doesn't move quickly to 
achieve a two-state solution, it will be in a position not unlike South Africa 
during the apartheid area, whereby a minority -- in this case Israeli Jews -- 
rules over a restive majority -- the Palestinians -- by means of force, 
repression and discriminatory laws.

Many Palestinians argue that is already the case, citing Israeli restrictions 
on movement, residence, and work.



Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


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