The Two-State Solution Is Dead But How About an Alternative?

A 2012 Gallup poll showed that 66% of Palestinians living in the West Bank supported the traditional two-state solution. It is that a Palestinian state be created in all of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with a necessary twenty-mile corridor joining them. In my book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia, published way back in 1990, I wrote that it was a non-starter and explained why. This solution was based merely on demographics, and I was saying that you can change the demographics, but you can’t change history and religion. Religious Jews rightly claim that all of the West Bank represent the very heart of ancient Israel, and it is that land which they demand to have as their own.

Palestinians Leaving the West Bank

In 2001 in Washington, D. C., I met with Judith Kipper, Middle East analyst for the Council on Foreign Relations, to discuss my alternative proposal for solving this Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As put forth in my book, it is that a Palestinian state be created only in the coastal plain, in “the land of the Philistines,” and Israel access all of the West Bank. This of course requires both a land swap and transfer of peoples. Ms. Kipper said to me, “You can’t tell the Palestinians to get out of the West Bank.” Yes, I did not disagree with that. However, I said to her, “But time can change things. What if the Palestinians in the West Bank were offered a better deal?” Of course, she had no respond. What could you say about that hypothetical idea?

But that’s where we are now. In 2023, Gallup took another poll which showed that only 24% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the traditional two-state solution. Most said it was “dead” and “irrelevant.” Jewish settlers have been squeezing Palestinians in the West Bank, and many of them are either leaving or want out. Life is intolerable there for them. They’d like a better deal. That’s what my alternative solution provides, and it may be right around the corner.

Expanding Gaza to Become a Palestinian State

The Gaza war is about over, and the peace plan for it is in process. The next move is to get Hamas to give up its weapons to the Palestinian Authority. It then  involves an ambitious reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip. If that happens, as President Trump is trying do with the formation of the Board of Peace, such a reconstructed Gaza could be the envy of the region. In that case, Palestinians in the West Bank would love to move there. However, the place is too small. But my proposal is that the Gaza Strip be greatly expanded to become the Palestinian state in a land swap in which Israel annexes the West Bank, and those Palestinians would move to the Gaza expansion, just as I envisioned when I discussed this with Ms. Kipper 25 years ago.