More Israelis, Palestinians support the 'one-state' solution

It is not at all clear whether US President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” will ever be implemented, but the very fact that it has been made public is having an impact on the mood in Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Remarks made by the president, when the plan was first revealed on Jan. 28, did not fall on deaf ears. Many people in Israel have come to the conclusion that the ultimate purpose of the plan was the immediate, unilateral annexation of the territories by Israel. Meanwhile, in the PA, many are convinced that the plan moves the Palestinians even further away from realizing their dream of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. It now looks like the number of people on both sides who no longer believe in a two-state solution is increasing and will continue to grow, even if only gradually.

Back in September 2018, Trump said that both parties — Israelis and Palestinians — can decide on their own whether they would prefer two states or a single state. At the same time, support among the Palestinians for the idea of a single state was increasing. In 2002, when Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi proposed his solution to the conflict, which he called “Israetine” (his proposal for the name of a new state, in which both peoples would enjoy full equality), the idea of a single, democratic state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River was met with derision and ridicule in Israel, the PA and the Arab world at large. A lot of water has flowed down the Jordan River since then. It now seems as if the younger generation in the PA and a significant number of Israelis, including both settlers and supporters of the left, have adopted the idea of a single state as their final default solution, capable of ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.