The Western media would have us believe this but it was first proposed by the British when they took control of Palestine and its destiny in 1917 after the fall of the Ottoman empire.
Palestinians totally rejected any notion of it in 1917 and most Palestinians rejected the recognising of Israeli sovereignty in Palestine through a 2-state solution in the Oslo Accords of 1993.
Here in Ireland similar things were happening around the same time in history. In 1918 the Irish people expressed through the ballot box the right to self-determination and Irish sovereignty. The British response was a brutal suppression of the Irish people and then Britain imposed an illegal two state solution, in the form of partition that has lasted to this day. In 1998 the two-state solution was copper fastened in Ireland when former republicans along with others accepted British sovereignty in the form of the consent principal and the dropping of Ireland's claim to sovereignty over all of Ireland with the dropping of Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution that stated the whole island formed one national territory as a right.
In 1993 when the PLO led by Yasser Arafat were forced, against the wishes of a considerable number of the Palestinian population, to sign the Oslo accord there were 7,400 illegal settlers in the West Bank today that number has increased to 670,000. The PLO were promised full control of the West Bank and the Gaza strip with the creation of the Palestinian Authority. Full control of security of the areas would still be in the hands of the Israelis. From its inception the PA has been embroiled in power struggles and corruption scandals. With the ever-increasing expansion of the illegal settlements and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands the Palestinian Authority has become nothing more than a gate keeper for its Israeli paymaster.
The two-state solution here in Ireland has not faired much better. In the 26 counties the administration has evolved into one of the most corrupt excuses for a government in Western Europe resulting in banks and multinationals having a free for all, carving up this part of the island, privatising and selling off everything to make a quick profit resulting in poverty and homelessness on a scale never seen before. In the 6 counties the Palestinian Authority’s sister party SF have had their own share of corruption scandals. From the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement they along with their partners in the dysfunctional administration have been more than willing to implement the carve-up and selling off of this part of the Island, on their own journey from revolutionaries to gate keepers for their paymasters.
The two state solution promised to the Palestinian Authority in the Oslo accord in 1993 was to give Palestine its own state comprising of land in the West Bank and Gaza border that had been redefined by Israel as a result of the 1967 war between Israel and its backers and Palestine and other Arab states. This was even less land that proposed by the British from 1917 to 1948. And from 1993 Israel has been consistently engaging in clearing of more Palestinians lands against international law to make way for illegal settlements and in the process turned remaining Palestinian areas into ghettos reminiscent to the Warsaw ghettos of 1940s Poland.
To understand why a two state solution was never going to materialise you have to understand why Israel was created by Britain with the full backing of the UN and The USA in the first place. It wasn’t to provide a safe home for the Jewish community of the world. It was to create an outpost to look after its own interests in the Middle East and they exploited the genuine fears of the Jewish community that time and fulfilled the delusional aspirations of the Zionist movement that was gathering momentum also.
What we are witnessing now is the final phase of the project to totally and finally rid Palestine of its people and replace them with the settlers but there has always been the problem that its not that easy because like the olive tree that Palestine uses as its symbol of resistance, they are extremely difficult to get rid of and are extremely resilient. The whole might of the West has been thrown at the Palestinians through their proxy, Israel, and they still have not been able to defeat them. The more extreme measures they use to achieve this goal the more they weaken their canalisation project. The reaction globally to the actions of Israel and their cheerleader has been building over the years to the point where governments and regimes supportive of the West are fearfully for their own skins because of the anger of their own people. Also, the West need to keep populating Palestine with settlers to maintain the balance of power and not only is the number of settlers slowing down but settlers already there are leaving in their droves.
So instead of the political classes both there and abroad calling for a two state solution in Palestine they should be calling for the expulsion of all Israeli politicians from here and the full restoration of Palestine pre 1917 when Jews, Christians and Muslims coexisted peacefully together.
In 1993 when the PLO led by Yasser Arafat were forced, against the wishes of a considerable number of the Palestinian population, to sign the Oslo accord there were 7,400 illegal settlers in the West Bank today that number has increased to 670,000. The PLO were promised full control of the West Bank and the Gaza strip with the creation of the Palestinian Authority. Full control of security of the areas would still be in the hands of the Israelis. From its inception the PA has been embroiled in power struggles and corruption scandals. With the ever-increasing expansion of the illegal settlements and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands the Palestinian Authority has become nothing more than a gate keeper for its Israeli paymaster.
The two-state solution here in Ireland has not faired much better. In the 26 counties the administration has evolved into one of the most corrupt excuses for a government in Western Europe resulting in banks and multinationals having a free for all, carving up this part of the island, privatising and selling off everything to make a quick profit resulting in poverty and homelessness on a scale never seen before. In the 6 counties the Palestinian Authority’s sister party SF have had their own share of corruption scandals. From the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement they along with their partners in the dysfunctional administration have been more than willing to implement the carve-up and selling off of this part of the Island, on their own journey from revolutionaries to gate keepers for their paymasters.
The two state solution promised to the Palestinian Authority in the Oslo accord in 1993 was to give Palestine its own state comprising of land in the West Bank and Gaza border that had been redefined by Israel as a result of the 1967 war between Israel and its backers and Palestine and other Arab states. This was even less land that proposed by the British from 1917 to 1948. And from 1993 Israel has been consistently engaging in clearing of more Palestinians lands against international law to make way for illegal settlements and in the process turned remaining Palestinian areas into ghettos reminiscent to the Warsaw ghettos of 1940s Poland.
To understand why a two state solution was never going to materialise you have to understand why Israel was created by Britain with the full backing of the UN and The USA in the first place. It wasn’t to provide a safe home for the Jewish community of the world. It was to create an outpost to look after its own interests in the Middle East and they exploited the genuine fears of the Jewish community that time and fulfilled the delusional aspirations of the Zionist movement that was gathering momentum also.
What we are witnessing now is the final phase of the project to totally and finally rid Palestine of its people and replace them with the settlers but there has always been the problem that its not that easy because like the olive tree that Palestine uses as its symbol of resistance, they are extremely difficult to get rid of and are extremely resilient. The whole might of the West has been thrown at the Palestinians through their proxy, Israel, and they still have not been able to defeat them. The more extreme measures they use to achieve this goal the more they weaken their canalisation project. The reaction globally to the actions of Israel and their cheerleader has been building over the years to the point where governments and regimes supportive of the West are fearfully for their own skins because of the anger of their own people. Also, the West need to keep populating Palestine with settlers to maintain the balance of power and not only is the number of settlers slowing down but settlers already there are leaving in their droves.
So instead of the political classes both there and abroad calling for a two state solution in Palestine they should be calling for the expulsion of all Israeli politicians from here and the full restoration of Palestine pre 1917 when Jews, Christians and Muslims coexisted peacefully together.
⏩Martin Rafferty, a member of the 32 CSM, is an activist with the BDS movement, campaigning for the sovereignty of the Palestinian people.
Essentially I go by what solution I have heard the Palestinian leadership assert -either a 2 state solution or equality in a unified state. The 2 state solution has had its day when the Palestinians say it has.
ReplyDeleteThe Middle East is a highly complex region and a 2 state solution cannot be equated to an Brit 6/26 county imposed split. During the late Ottoman period Jews were in decline and during WW1 they were being expelled from the region. Simultaneously Muslim immigration was doubling their numbers from around 600,000 to 1.2 million. In a region that had an absolute majority of Jews now had 0.03% of the world's Jewish population.
While in no way condoning or excusing Israeli atrocities or crimes against humanity --while Islamist are 1 dimensional Islamic fundamentalists that want to eradicate Jews and the rest of the world -every innocent Palestinian the Israelis kill is a victory to Hamas Islamist's. Palestinian resistance and freedom movements are more secular and rational. The Israelis might be brutal and wrong with their use of force but they do have a claim and a right to be in that region.
And speaking of Ireland -Until the GFA the Irish Diaspora could claim Irish citizenship if they could show that one of their ancestors had been Irish -say they left in the 1840s during the Genocide - why was that ok and its not ok for Jewish diaspora to show their heritage?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how either a one state or two state solution will come about. The Israelis have done their utmost to block either. Israeli will continue with its policy of Lebensraum until forced to stop.The US has the power to bring about one or the other but for its own strategic reasons refuses to do so. The UN is useless.
ReplyDeleteI find it baffling how this tinderbox is left so close to exploding. I get that US interests are served by having a nuclear armed supplicant state near Iran, but it makes no sense to me why it allows said supplicant state to act out its violence and enraging the Arab and Muslim worlds.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think the Clinton administration did want to see a peaceful settlement in the early 1990s.
Short of a heroic Rabin figure willing to risk civil war to dismantle the settlements, I don't actually see how a two state solution is viable.
I think Israel is destroying itself at the moment.
Of course, up until Hamas attacked Palestinians would frequently travel over the border to work in Israel and militarily the Israeli's pulled out in 2008 ( I think?)
DeleteCan't have enraged the "Muslim and Arab worlds" that much when Egypt kept that door firmly shut for years.
When has US foreign policy ever been a force for good in the world? It's only interest in Ukraine is as a foil to Moscow. Otherwise it would as readily arm the Russians and permit genocide against Ukraine.
DeleteI think when you are dealing with a rogue state that implements genocide, views Palestinians as Nazis did Jews, and is armed and held in place by the US, then we are in the abyss from which nobody can chart an easy way out.
Even in Israel the Gestapo type tactics are being ramped up to curb those Jews who do not have a Nazi instinct.
Hitler's greatest success has been in moulding Israel in his own image.
Like Christy, I see no point in taking a firm line from afar on what type of state the Palestinians should have. Nor do I imagine the parents crouching in terror of the Einsatzgruppen on the hunt for children to murder will be much thinking about it.
It is one of those truly terrible situations where the problem might best be defined as one to which there is no solution.
"When has US foreign policy ever been a force for good in the world?"
DeletePost WWII I assume you mean?
The Jewish people got themselves imbedded in power in the US and in my opinion that's why the US back's Israel. Otherwise why else would they care?
Before it as well.
ReplyDeleteDuring WW2 it was on the side of good but so was Stalinism.
I can see what you say as an innocent explanation but it leads to the Jews run America.
I doubt that is why the US backs Israel. It backs it in my view for the same reason it backs Ukraine - interests rather than friends. A strategic ally in the region that is a serious power player is of immense geopolitical value to the US. If Israel starts building gas chambers for the Palestinians do you think the US would deviate from Israel has the right to defend itself licence for genocide? I like Western values but I very much dislike that Western governments do not hold to them.
One lesson we have learned in all of it is this: The British Labour Party leadership is as even more wedded to war crimes and atrocity than it was under Blair. Starmer - just a Tory toady. What a despicable piece of garbage.
And speaking of Ireland -Until the GFA the Irish Diaspora could claim Irish citizenship if they could show that one of their ancestors had been Irish -say they left in the 1840s during the Genocide
ReplyDeleteNot that true.
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_nationality_law
Oppressed nations, Ukrainians, Palestinians, Kurds are entitled to ask for, beg for, demand assistance from the rivals of their oppressors. The 1916 people were right to take help from the Kaiser's Germany. All that could be said is that it should have been without illusions. Yes, if it suited the USA it would ditch the Ukrainians. Indeed they partially ditched the Kurds.
Intra imperialist rivalries can be useful, but the enemy of my enemy is at most a temporary convenience not an ally.
Sadly, many see each and every opponent of the USA as somewhat better and take the simplistic approach that they should always be of on what seems to be teh other side.