{"id":399,"date":"2012-03-12T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T19:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/one-state-will-never-fit-all.html"},"modified":"2012-03-12T19:27:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T19:27:00","slug":"one-state-will-never-fit-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/one-state-will-never-fit-all.html","title":{"rendered":"One State Will Never Fit All"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

While I was attending a youth conclave for the Society of Humanistic Jews in Washington, there was another gathering at Harvard making headlines.\u00a0 At our conclave a young woman asked me what I thought about the One-State Conference<\/a> hosted by Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School.\u00a0 The answer is not much.<\/p>\n

The idea of a one-state solution supported by real antisemites and deluded utopian left-wingers is one of the most unrealistic non-solutions ever proposed to any conflict.\u00a0 Such a \u201csolution\u201d would result in nothing but more \u2013 and worse \u2013 conflict and bloodshed.<\/p>\n

Now as a humanist I put my faith in the ability of human beings to solve problems, but I base this faith on the potential of actual human beings.\u00a0 Idealistic leftists, on the other hand, have a starry-eyed, completely unrealistic notion of anything resembling actual Homo sapiens<\/i>.\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, many of them come from the religious left.\u00a0 Their misplaced idealism has led them to support the elimination of the Jewish state in favor of a new multi-national hybrid.\u00a0 Are they completely clueless about human history?\u00a0 This is a thoroughly unworkable non-solution.\u00a0 Just ask anyone from Serbia, Croatia, Lebanon or Iraq.<\/p>\n

Of course the masterminds behind this plan know exactly what it is they\u2019re proposing.\u00a0 It is nothing less than the elimination of Israel and the creation of a 23rd Arab nation-state.\u00a0 But they don\u2019t say that too loudly to their leftist utopian friends.\u00a0 They frame it in terms of justice and righteousness.\u00a0 They praise these values to \u201csolve\u201d the Israeli-Arab conflict, completely ignoring the human rights records of the 22 existing Arab nations (not to mention Iran).\u00a0 Only a complete sucker would fall for this.\u00a0 Apparently there are a few in the Kennedy School.<\/p>\n

As usual, Jeffrey Goldberg, writing for Bloomberg, hits the nail on the head:<\/p>\n

The \u201cshared state\u201d model, of course, barely works in Belgium<\/a>. In the heart of the merciless Middle East, where the oppression of ethnic and religious minorities by the Muslim Arab majority is in many countries severe and ongoing, it would be a formula for endless war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even one of the intellectual fathers of one-statism, the academic Edward Said, acknowledged that Jews could be endangered in this theoretical country. Asked by the Haaretz journalist Ari Shavit in 2000 if he thought a Jewish minority would be treated fairly, he said<\/a>: \u201cIt worries me a great deal. The question of what is going to be the fate of the Jews is very difficult for me. I really don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israelis know. There is near wall-to-wall agreement among Israelis, and their supporters, that the Belgian model would quickly deteriorate into the Lebanese model.<\/p>\n

Some of the most persuasive arguments against one-statism, in fact, come from the left. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder of J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby group in Washington<\/a>, told me that the one-state solution is a \u201cone-state nightmare.\u201d Gershom Gorenberg, in his new book, \u201cThe Unmaking of Israel,\u201d a jeremiad directed at the Jewish settlement movement, writes at length about the absurdity at the heart of the proposal.<\/p>\n

Palestinians will demand the return of property lost in 1948 and perhaps the rebuilding of destroyed villages. Except for the drawing of borders, virtually every question that bedevils Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations will become a domestic problem setting the new political entity aflame.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gorenberg predicts that Israelis of means would flee this new state, leaving it economically crippled. \u201cFinancing development in majority-Palestinian areas and bringing Palestinians into Israel\u2019s social welfare network would require Jews to pay higher taxes or receive fewer services. But the engine of the Israeli economy is high-tech, an entirely portable industry. Both individuals and companies will leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the best case, this new dystopia by the sea would be paralyzed by endless argument: \u201cTwo nationalities who have desperately sought a political frame for cultural and social independence would wrestle over control of language, art, street names, and schools.\u201d In the worst case, Gorenberg writes, political tensions \u201cwould ignite as violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not involved with J-Street, but I give them credit for rejecting this.\u00a0 Transforming the existing conflict into a domestic hell on earth will not help anyone.\u00a0 It will be a recipe for Yugoslavian-style civil war.<\/p>\n

The antisemites who call for this already know that.\u00a0 It\u2019s exactly what they\u2019re hoping for.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I was attending a youth conclave for the Society of Humanistic Jews in Washington, there was another gathering at Harvard making headlines.\u00a0 At our conclave a young woman asked me what I thought about the One-State Conference hosted by Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School.\u00a0 The answer is not much. The idea of a one-state solution supported […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,21],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-israel","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict"],"yoast_head":"\nOne State Will Never Fit All<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While I was attending a youth conclave for the Society of Humanistic Jews in Washington, there was another gathering at Harvard making headlines.\u00a0 At our\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/one-state-will-never-fit-all.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One State Will Never Fit All\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While I was attending a youth conclave for the Society of Humanistic Jews in Washington, there was another gathering at Harvard making headlines.\u00a0 At our\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2012\/03\/one-state-will-never-fit-all.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-12T19:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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