The New York Times reported Dec. 3 that the new peace plan being hammered out these days by the White House would include an option enabling Jews to live under Palestinian sovereignty. US President Donald Trump already said back in February that as far as he’s concerned, “I am looking at two-state, and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has occasionally demanded in his speeches that Israel’s West Bank settlements be left in place within the framework of a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians, and the issue has even been brought up in negotiations with the Palestinians. Even the leader of the opposition Zionist Camp faction, Avi Gabbay, said, “If you make a peace deal, you can find solutions that do not require evacuating settlements.” If Arab villages can exist in the heart of the State of Israel, the political right argues, why should the future Palestinian state be “Judenrein” (free of Jews, in German)? So, in fact, why not one state for Jews with a Palestinian minority and another state for Palestinians with a Jewish minority?

The tragic Nov. 30 incident in the northern West Bank provides a relevant answer to this logical question. Several dozen residents of the Palestinian village of Kusra hurled stones at a group of two dozen Israeli youths and armed adults accompanying them who were marching on the outskirts of the village, slightly injuring two of them. One of the escorts opened fire and fatally wounded Kusra resident Mahmoud Zael Odeh.