US President Barack Obama and much of the international community blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the lack of a peace deal with the Palestinians. But even leading left-wing politicians admit it’s more complicated than that, and that a two-state solution is simply no longer viable.
“We have reached the point in time when there is no feasibility for the two-state solution,” said Zionist Union (Labor) MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin during a visit to the Etzion Bloc of Jewish settlements that she insisted “is a consensus in my party.”
Still, even without birthing a Palestinian state and while retaining control of large Jewish settlement blocs, Nahmias-Verbin believes Israel must find a way to separate from the Palestinians.
“We need to create a security solution and that for my party the separation is that solution,” she told Israel National News.
For Nahmias-Verbin and her party chief, opposition leader Isaac Herzog, the bottom line is that “we live with many Arabs, and we must find a way to co-exist.”
But for most Israelis, their vague vision of separation without enabling a hostile Palestinian state leaves many questions to be answered.
- Do they really believe the Palestinian leadership will take part in a bilateral separation that leaves Israel in control of large Jewish settlements?
- Do they really believe that the Palestinian leadership will relinquish its claims to Jerusalem?
- Do they really believe that both the Palestinians and the international community won’t treat this separation as the birth of a sovereign Palestinian state?
- Do they really believe true separation is maintainable should Palestinian groups continue to carry out terrorist attacks?
- Do they really believe the world will accept “separation” in lieu of a full-fledged two-state solution?
Many Israelis fear that the more likely outcome will be a situation mirroring what happened after Israel “separated” from the Gaza Strip.
