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Is the Two-State Solution Bankrupt? (Take Two)

The current political climate in Israel favors continuation of the settlement enterprise in the West Bank, pushing away any chance of a "two-state solution."
Eviatar, a new makeshift settlement named after Eviatar Borovsky, the Israeli settler killed by Palestinian Salam Zaghal in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, is seen on a hilltop about 1km from the fatal attack, near the West Bank city of Nablus May 2, 2013. While the family of the dead settler mourned their loss, the Zaghal family, living in poverty in the north of the Palestinian territory, defended Salam's action as justified. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTXZ7L1
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"Two-State Solution Bankrupt." That was the very definitive headline of an article I published on this site last week on May 23. I have since received countless phone messages, text messages, and messages on my Facebook page in response to that article. Many were critical of what I had written: “If the mighty cedar has fallen, how shall the hyssop respond?” asked one worried friend. Others were quick to express their reservations about the cogency of my claim and the very fact that it left them with no hope, not even a smidgen. One of those comments that moved me the most came from an ultra-Orthodox friend. I admit, I once assumed that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would hardly be a priority of someone who lives a life devoted to Torah study. And yet, I immediately adopted one particular sentence that he told me: “I don’t want to raise my children in a place where they tell them that there is no hope, that change is not an option and that we will feed off the sword for all eternity.”

Another friend wrote: “It is so sad that we caused this. … We had better start taking charge of reality, because right now it is taking charge of us.” That was exactly what I intended to say in the article. The reality in the field had taken charge of us and, being left with no choice, no faith and no power of persuasion, we followed after it. We followed out of apathy. The Israeli public came to accept the mantra, “There is no partner on the Palestinian side,” as if it was some divine decree. This was especially true after the second intifada. Israel’s decision-making class led us in that mantra, and it was soon adopted by those people in the media who shape public opinion. There is no one to talk to, and there’s nothing to talk about either.

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