two states solution

Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor (UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Israel’s UN ambassador puts another nail in the two-state coffin

‘Imagine the type of state [Palestinian] society would produce. Does the Middle East really need another terror-ocracy?’ Prosor said in a speech on Monday. In recent years Israeli government officials have learned that rejecting the rights of Palestinians should always go hand-in-hand with a verbal commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state. But the…

By Noam Sheizaf November 25, 2014

[Illustrative photo by Shutterstock.com]

The only two-state solution that might work

The U.S. and Israel want to limit Palestinian sovereignty, to demilitarize their state, to prevent a Palestinian return and to implement any agreement in stages. But in order for the two-state solution to have a chance at working, they need to do the exact opposite. The deadlock in the peace talks has generated another American diplomatic push,…

By Noam Sheizaf December 9, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and special envoy to the peace talks Martin Indyk (State Department photo/ Public Domain)

Is the Obama administration cooking up ‘Oslo 3’?

More and more reports are suggesting that the U.S. is planning to put forward an offer that would end the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Martin Indyk, the American envoy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, gave an hour-long address at the end of the J Street Conference in Washington last month. Indyk said nothing about the talks…

By Noam Sheizaf November 4, 2013

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[Illustrative photo by Shutterstock.com]

Two state vs. one state debate is a waste of time, political energy

Your favorite pastime is a part of the occupation. Arguably the most popular political debate on Israel/Palestine is the one taking place between supporters of the two-state solution and those who support a one-state idea. A piece by Professor Ian Lustick in the New York Times won a lot of attention recently, and it’s not…

By Noam Sheizaf September 20, 2013

Construction in Aley Zahav settlement, the West Bank, 2012 (photo: Flyingman / CC-BY 3.0)

In the West Bank, a new settlement is born

Settlers are celebrating ‘the first official settlement in 20 years.’ Housing Minister: ‘There are no two states, and there won’t be two states.’ The regional council for Jewish settlements in the northern part of the West Bank (Samaria) celebrated on Sunday the construction of a new settlement called Leshem, located in the western part of…

By Noam Sheizaf August 26, 2013

In Israel, a conversation about the future of occupation is part of the occupation

While a third of the Knesset joins the pro-settlement caucus, one member of the coalition warns of a ‘South African’ future. The Israeli political conversation has a strange sense of déjà vu these days: on Wednesday, during a panel organized by the think-tank Molad, Knesset Member Ofer Shelah of Yesh Atid warned that if Israel…

By Noam Sheizaf June 13, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry addresses the staff and families at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem on April 8, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Secretary of State John Kerry: 12-18 months before two-state solution is ‘over’

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry estimates that the two-state solution will be “over” in a year and a half. Kerry spoke at the House Foreign Affair Committee hearing on U.S. interests abroad. While many analysts have been discussing the closing of a window of opportunity for the two-state solution for several years, setting such a short…

By Noam Sheizaf April 17, 2013

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. president Bill Clinton, and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat at the signing of the Oslo Accords at the White House on September 13, 1993. (Vince Musi/The White House)

The Israeli negotiator who thinks the two-state solution is still possible

Veteran Israeli negotiator Shaul Arieli discusses the failure of the Oslo Accords, various Israeli prime ministers’ commitment (or lack thereof) to ending the occupation, and the only solution he believes both sides could live with, however unsatisfied they might be with it. Shaul Arieli is a man on a dual mission: educating Israelis about the conflict and diplomatic process…

By Noam Sheizaf March 27, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas. (photo: State Department photo/ Public Domain)

Fake peace talks are far worse than no peace talks

With Tzipi Livni joining Netanyahu’s government and President Obama heading to the region, we might be in for another round of a pseudo-‘peace process,’ which has become a code name for an attempt to impose ‘a deal’ on a Palestinian pseudo-leadership. Hatnuah – Tzipi Livni’s new party that won six seats in the last Israeli…

By Noam Sheizaf February 20, 2013

President Barack Obama talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office Monday, May 18, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Obama’s trip to Israel: Just showing up isn’t enough

The U.S. president’s decision to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in the spring is an unexpected political gift to the Israeli prime minister. Yet without confronting Netanyahu on the issues of the settlements and the ’67 borders, we could end up with another diplomatic failure and even a renewal of violence in the region.…

By Noam Sheizaf February 6, 2013

Beinart analyzes the problems well, but is fifteen years too late (Photo: Yossi Gurvitz)

Too little, too late: On Peter Beinart’s ‘The Crisis of Zionism’

While Peter Beinart’s latest book is well worth reading, his solutions come far too late and are likely to achieve little. I’ve recently finished reading Peter Beinart’s controversial book, The Crisis of Zionism; admittedly I read it mostly to understand what the noise was all about. The book took heavy criticism, if by “criticism” you…

By Yossi Gurvitz April 11, 2012

Settler MK Uri Ariel calls for one state

Knesset member joins other rightwing leaders in call for annexing West Bank, one state solution. One of the well known figures in the settler movement, Knesset Member Uri Ariel from the radical rightwing National Union Party, is publicly calling for a one-state solution as an alternative to the construction of a Palestinian state, the independent…

By Noam Sheizaf March 5, 2012

Dimi Reider Gershom Gorenberg bloggingheads diavlog

Bloggingheads: Reider vs Gorenberg: One state or two?

The Palestinian Authority’s statehood bid is portrayed as a crucial step on the way to the two state solution, yet an independent Palestinian state appears to as distant as ever. Watch below as Gershom Gorenberg and I engage in a Bloggingheads diavlog to discuss whether it’s time to begin considering other options. One sneaky note…

By Dimi Reider October 5, 2011