A binational state with strong protections for all of its people regardless of faith or ethnicity would also do the trick.

In fact, it will have to.

The dialogue should start shifting towards ripping up Oslo and giving the right to vote to everyone living in areas permanently subject to the control of by Israeli government.

This kind of conference is well-intentioned but that ship has sailed.

Is allowing Jordan to annex about half of the WB and create a protectorate or something. A lot of settlements would still have to go but it would give the Palestinians the ethno-religious purity that they say they want. It's the only way to deal with Hebron, an issue that is conveniently ignored in most 2 state plans. The border in that area would still be a mess though.

A binational state is unworkable for too many reasons to list.

Or that the Palestinians want a king?

Last edited Sat Jan 14, 2017, 08:14 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't think the Palestinians like this arrangement, but they are obviously incapable of affecting change. The people of Palestine are chained by Hamas, a terrorist group in Gaza and Fatah, a tribal group in the WB. There are no indications that anything will change in the near or midterm future, in fact the descent into tyranny and totalitarianism in the WB is almost complete, the only step left is for the current dictator, Abbas to name his successor, which is ongoing as we speak.

The Palestinians are the largest ethnic group in Jordan, making up more than half of the entire population and yet they have almost no representation, receive no social benefits, can't work in the government and are heavily taxed.

Creating a joint Palestinian and Jordanian protectorate in part of the WB and on the other side of the river would go a very long way to make up for the historic injustices the Hashemites have inflicted on the Palestinians.

and I don't think there's any incentive whatsoever for Jordan to take over. The situation in the occupied territories is Israel's own making, and Israel can either make the occupied territories into a viable Palestinian state (which is physically impossible) or fully incorporate them into Israel.

I think this conference should've happened 10 years ago when things appeared to move forward, and a Palestinian state could've been possible.

At best the conference will declare the parameters for a viable Palestinian state which then can be used to show that it's not going to happen. Apartheid is an Israeli national strategy, and any measures that would make things better for Palestinians won't be permitted. That the Paris summit is taking place at all is a clear indication that the world has invested a lot of political capital in the two-state solution, and it's not pleased to see Israel killing it.

Netanyahu has called the event futile, rigged and “a relic of the past”, adding: “It’s a last gasp of the past before the future sets in.”

For once, I think he's right. We need to accept that Israel has successfully killed the two-state solution, that the settlements and occupation are here to stay, and that the only way forward is international pressure on Israel to grant all the Palestinians full citizenship and equal rights.

Good luck pressuring Israelis to commit national suicide.

The only way Israel could conceivably have existed permanently as a Jewish state in Palestine was along side a viable Palestinian state, and they've systematically made that impossible.

What is needed now is pressure from the outside world on Israel, and support for the Palestinians, to make the inevitable as quick and painless as possible - which, sadly, will still be slow and very painful.

What I suspect will happen now is that Israel will continue to expand and oppress, the Palestinians will stop calling for a homeland and start calling for citizenship, it will become harder and harder to pretend that Israel is not an apartheid state, support for Israel will become first a partisan right-wing issue and then a fringe position, international pressure will mount, and ultimately Jewish Israelis will end up in a similar grim position to white Zimbabweans. That's moderately appalling, but less appalling than letting government of the Palestinians, by the Israels, for the Jews continue unchecked.