Responding to Israel’s policy of continuous occupation of Palestninian land, illegal Jewish settlements on the occupied Palestinian land and brutal retaliation against Palestinian resistance and lately the audacious Hamas military attack deep inside Israel that have killed close to 900 Israelis and many injured and the not-so-unexpected Israeli vicious retaliations that have razed Gaza where Hamas are located and operate from, to rubble and killed countless Palestinian men, women and children (and counting) Ari Shavit, an Israeli human rights activist in his recent article, Haaretz, “Israel takes its last breath” has argued that “….Israel can no longer end the occupation, stop settlements and achieve peace, and it seems that it is no longer possible to reform Zionism (thus),..you must look quietly and watch the “State of Israel” takes its last breath.”
Referring to Israel’s (more specifically to the ultra-right Zions that rule Israel) penchant for violence and its arrogant refusal to respect and recognise the rights of Palestinians and its refusal to recognise the sovereignty of UN authorized Palestinian territory, Shavit has further argued that there is no “taste for living in this [Israel] country” and this may already be happening.
In the aftermath of the Hamas attack and the Israel government’s vicious retaliations and the emerging spectre of a cycle of violence and counter violence ensuing, thousands (by the last count, 60,000) of Israelis have already left the country and more are on way.
As a matter of fact, as all Israelis have foreign passports, many would choose “to say goodbye to friends and move to San Francisco, Berlin or Paris”, the towns and countries that are also witnessing rise of ultra-nationalism meaning that for many Israelis the journey out of Israel would only transport them from a frying pan to boiling pots.
So, what is the way forward? Many think that given Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land and its ever-expanding settlements that have fragmented Palestine, and that violence is the only tool that the Israeli ultra-Zionist government employs to secure its existence, they may have pushed the country to the point of no return. For the Israelis more violence and more insecurity seem to be the only path which is self-defeating.
The Israel/Palestine two-state theory does no more seems like a viable option. Therefore, the way forward may be to go for the one-state solution. The greater and the original Palestine, where Jews and Palestinians (Muslims and Christians) once lived side-by-side as citizens of one country seems to be the answer.
After all, given that the Palestinians who are the original Israelites who converted from Judaism to Islam and some, to Christianity, and who belonged to the Sephardi group (original) of Israelites, just as are some of the Jews in present day Israel where there are two groups of Jews – the Sephardi (original Jews of Palestine) and the Ashkenazi, the European (mainly East European/Russian) migrant Jews, the more aggressive and arrogant Jews who run Israel and are at the root of the current conflicts, time may have come for the Sephardi to chart out a more peaceful the future for Israel.
While it is difficult to say at this stage exactly how the current Israel/Palestine conflict will be resolved and given that the Jewish Israel was created and exists mainly because of the US/Europe backing and without the goodwill of its neighbours and given that Europe is tired, and that the US has too many things on its plate already and that its resources are over committed and its own economy is not at its best and furthermore, given that there are other super powers who are emerging and that new coalitions are being forged where new geopolitical realities are evolving, a belligerent Israel is increasingly proving to be a liability to its backers and indeed, to itself.
Over time, the US/Europe support for Israel is bound to weaken and when that happens, Israel’s capacity to survive on its own will be anything but easy.
Thus, as Ari Shavit has argued that it is neither the United Nations nor the US/the European Union who can help Israel rather “The only power in the world capable of saving “Israel” from itself, are the “Israelis” themselves, by devising a new political language that recognizes reality and that the Palestinians are rooted in this land. I urge you to find the third way in order to survive here and not die.”
Perhaps, one-state solution is the answer.
M. Adil Khan is an academic and former senior policy manager of the United Nations
