Israel/Palestine -- how could a one-state solution work?

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Almost but not quite.

They are equivalent to what the Indian reservations were when they were originally created, which were places where the indigenous people were confined to. These days, indigenous Americans are no longer confined to the reservations.

In a hypothetical unified Israel-Palestine, I think both Gaza and Areas A and B in the West Bank should be turned into what the Indian reservations are now: places that are reserved for indigenous people, but not places they are confined to.

In a hypothetical unified Israel-Palestine, I also think that some parts (but not the entirety) of what is now Israel should be reserved for Jews. The parts reserved for Jews should be (1) places where indigenous Jews traditionally lived before Zionism was a thing and/or (2) at least some of places that were truly uninhabited and uninhabitable before European Jews began arriving in the late 1800's and began irrigating the place.

But I also think a significant part of the land mass (including Area C of the West Bank plus various parts of what is now Israel, including the sea port of Jaffa, parts of Jerusalem and its vicinity, and corridors connecting these areas to each other and to West Bank area C, Gaza, and the Golan Heights) should be a federal area where all citizens would be allowed to live and travel. The Golan Heights would also be part of the federal area.

As I envision it, both the Jewish-only areas and the Palestinian/Arab areas would have local governments subordinate to the federal government.

The federal area would be contiguous and would contain all (or at least most of) the militarily strategic highland areas. The military would be systematically integrated.

Also, and very important: There should be a policy of NO EVICTIONS. People who were living in a reserved area before it was declared to be reserved should not be evicted just because they are of the wrong religion/ethnicity. They would just be prohibited from moving there if they didn't already live there, and/or from buying land there if they didn't already own it.


Yes, and a big sticking point in a unified Israel-Palestine would be maintaining the population balance.

In a unified Israel-Palestine, there would probably need to be a constitutionally mandated immigration policy that would balance the "right of return" of diaspora Jews against the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees. Both could become citizens at a rate determined by the current population balance. (On the Jewish side, immigration policy might also favor Jews from countries where they are actually being persecuted over Jews from countries where they are not being persecuted.)

I would envision the solution being negotiated primarily between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (not Hamas), most likely under pressure from a U.S. President, if and whenever the U.S.A. starts drifting away from unconditional support for Israel. The latter is likely to happen at some point, insofar as premillenial dispensationalism has started to become less popular among younger evangelical Christians here in the U.S.A.

If they view it that way their are no solutions other kicking the Jews out or killing all of them. Some that view it that way would agree to temporary compromises as acknowledging practical realities, but the end goal is unchanged.

Egypt’s greatest fear is the Muslim Brotherhood, surely they don’t want more of them who will certainly be among a lot of the refugees (Hamas forces).

Jordan has a very bad history with armed Palestinians: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September

With tons of financial resources and weapons from Iran, a Hamas presence can easily become a state-within-state and seek to replace the host regimes, or even to attempt to take over the host country as a replacement country. It happened in Jordan and it happened (in much worse fashion) in Lebanon.

They should really restrict refugees status to women, children and elderly only. No young men (even tho the PLO historically had a lot of armed female recruits among the Fedayeen, but the modern Hamas doesn’t seem so).

So yeah, of course the neighboring Arab stares will be wary.

I don't know what you think, but I have a strong impression most Palestinians expect the Jews to be gone sooner or later. They look around and see a world that is largely on their side, even US support for Zionism is getting shaky compared to what it was during the Cold War. I don't know if they're right, but it gives them no incentive to give anything up if they expect to get everything they want in a generation or two. As they probably are wrong, war in that region will go on for as long as humans remain on Earth or at least until the collapse of civilization .

I don't know what you think, but I have a strong impression most Palestinians expect the Jews to be gone sooner or later. They look around and see a world that is largely on their side, even US support for Zionism is getting shaky compared to what it was during the Cold War. I don't know if they're right, but it gives them no incentive to give anything up if they expect to get everything they want in a generation or two. As they probably are wrong, war in that region will go on for as long as humans remain on Earth or at least until the collapse of civilization .

I don't know what you think, but I have a strong impression most Palestinians expect the Jews to be gone sooner or later.

But you're right...the issue of balance in voting population is also an issue. Thats what happened in Lebanon between Christians and Muslims. Christians were the majority but then the Muslim population grew to equal it, and then surpass. The result was civil war...that has never really stopped.

European Jews already got their one-state solution, it's called New York. Heyooooo!

I mentioned the withdrawals of the British and French from their colonies as giving them the opinion western powers which is how they view Israel will eventually quit. They look at the U.S. defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan, Israel's withdrawals from the Sinai and Lebanon as proof that that despite their own substantial military disadvantages they will outlast Israel another “colonist western” power.

Not quite. Jews are still only a vary small minority in the U.S.A. as a whole. And, even here in New York, Jews are far from being a majority, although they are one of the largest of the many ethnic groups here.

For at least several decades before Hitler came to power, Germany seemed to be a great place for Jews too. That's why so many Jews ardently desire a country where Jews can be a majority, or at least not a small and vulnerable minority.

Therefore, I think it's important to come up with a solution that accommodates the understandable fears of Jews while at the same time respecting the rights of Palestinians/Arabs.

My impression is that they see the current Israel/Palestine situation as being more like Apartheid-era South Africa than like, say, French Algeria, and they are hoping for a solution similar to the end of Apartheid. In South Africa, if I'm not mistaken, although quite a few white people left when Apartheid ended, the vast majority of white people did NOT leave; they just gave up their legally-mandated privileges over everyone else, after decades of international pressure to do so.

See also my post here about the meaning of "de-colonization" in the Israel/Palestine context.

It was a joke, but the truth within the joke is that you could easily fit every Jew in the world in that state and then some. New York was once called New Amsterdam, and maybe in the future we'll be calling it New Israel, who's to say? We should be thinking outside the sandbox here.

My response to this is somewhat informed by my having visited SA during Apartheid almost 45 years ago. BTW I have also been to Israel.

As to why the Middle East can't follow that model, I could write a lengthy essay. I will say that part of it is due to people outside the ME not wanting peace there.

There may once have been some desire for coexistence, but that disappeared decades ago.