Articles
Books, Page 54
What’s Wrong with the One-State Agenda? Why Ending the Occupation and Peace with Israel Is Still the Palestinian National Goal
By Hussein Ibish, American Task Force on Palestine, 2009, paperback, 138 pp. AET: $10.
Reviewed by Anthony Saidy
POLITICS without an informing philosophy is a mere struggle for power. Philosophy without a political strategy is an airy collection of words.
Philosophically, this reviewer has no objection to the one-state solution (OSS). Nor, for that matter, to the Socialist United States of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. I’ll throw in Cyprus, too. I also assent to the mass overnight conversion of all those nations to secularism. But as a down-to-earth activist of several decades, I know a utopian, utterly impractical proposal when I see one. Six million traumatized, nuclear-armed Israelis are not going to be forced to give up their fetishized state. Like a recent president, it’s my gut reaction—don’t bother me with arguments.
Along comes this new book by Hussein Ibish—Lebanese immigrant, literary scholar, author, past communications director for ADC, once voted the leading Arab-American TV spokesman, currently senior fellow at the American Task Force for Palestine. The book is exceptionally well-written, methodical and thorough, yet concise. One is hard-put to find a contemporary polemic that is its equal.
Ibish points out that the advocates of the OSS are nearly all émigré intellectuals, including a handful of Israeli leftists. While the OSS is occasionally mentioned within Palestine, even by President Mahmoud Abbas, it is always in the context of warning the Israelis to stop obstructing the two-state solution (TSS), or else. (We of course are not speaking of Hamas’ OSS—an Islamic republic.) There is justifiable despair within Palestine, after President Barack Obama’s rhetoric has been revealed to be mere PR and the mighty USA remains obedient to Israel and its Lobby.
Ibish specifically takes issue with his erstwhile collaborator Ali Abunimah’s book (see following review) touting the OSS. In Part I, Ibish addresses the question, “What is the One-State Agenda and Where Does it Come From?” Part II summarizes “The Main Arguments for the One-State Agenda,” nine of them, followed by Part III, “Problems with the One-State Agenda,” also nine. Part IV assesses “The One-State Agenda as a Negotiating Tactic” (unwise). The Conclusion proposes “A Rational and Effective Strategy for Palestinians and Their Supporters in the U.S.” and discusses the “Death of the Peace Process and the Future of the Conflict.”
The pressing need today is for ending the conflict and relieving the dire suffering of the Palestinians along with the anxieties of the war-habituated Israelis. Absence of the requisite will in Washington and in the area’s ruling cliques cannot be overcome with grandiose dreams.
Anthony Saidy, a retired physician, chess master and author, served as president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Los Angeles in 1990 and 2006.
One Country: A Bold Proposal To End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
By Ali Abunimah, Henry Holt Press, 2006, paperback, 227 pp. List: $15; AET: $12.
Reviewed by Adam Chamy
A ONE-STATE solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may seem like a far-fetched pipe dream, but noted Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah proves otherwise.
At first glance, the idea seems like easy fodder for late-night political satire—but, then again, in Western Europe, nations which were bloodsworn enemies for almost half a century became trusted allies, now united in the EU. And, defying all predictions of a bloodbath, Afrikaaners and black South Africans eventually reconciled and united without violence.
Drawing upon a variety of ideas ranging from forgotten one-state plans under the British Mandate to strong evidence of growing distrust of a two-state solution by Palestinians and Israelis alike, Abunimah demonstrates that, in the long run, a one-state solution not only may be more palatable, but perhaps ultimately inevitable as well.
Starting from the premise that the partition of Palestine was flawed from the start, Abunimah analyzes how the current politics and demographics of Israel as a Jewish state are not sustainable in the long run. Indeed, he argues, under Israeli occupation, Palestine already exists (albeit unequally) within a one-state system. Citing such examples of successful multicultural and multilingual democracies as Switzerland, Canada and South Africa, Abunimah goes on to present some startling poll results and on-the-ground research as the basis for a well-reasoned challenge that most Palestinians and Israelis would be opposed to some sort of two-state alternative.
Most convincingly, he points out that an emphasis on reconciliation and human rights for all—Israelis and Palestinians alike—is the only way to truly end the century-old conflict. Simply trying to divide up land fails to tackle the underlying mutual distrust between both parties.
In the end, Abunimah makes the logic of a one-state solution clear—perhaps clearer—than that of the two-state alternative. All that is left is changing the mainstream national narratives to fit an increasingly viable political, economic, and social reality.
Adam Chamy is director of the AET Book Club.
