(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Two State Solution [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-25 I posted this as a long comment on the diary One Controversial Solution, and then saw another diary about the 2 state solution, and then another about Biden and Netanyahu, so I decided to do it as a diary as well. Have fun with it. I just don’t think that a 2 state solution has been workable since 2000 when Arafat decided on the 2nd intifada instead of peace. However, Hamas has caused, as Biden said, an inflection point. More pointedly, an opportunity for greater things that should not be wasted. The joint statement put out a few days after the massacre by the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy ended by basically saying that they want a long term solution after the war. So I am counting on all 5 of them to get this ball rolling.That said, 2 states could be done, but it can really only work long term if the Israelis and Palestinians are somewhat integrated. Slowly at first but over time it could work. This is not a 1 state solution. More of an EU+NATO with some locally required adjustments. Europe is a good example. Between 1870-1945 France and Germany fought 3 wars. Now the idea of them going to war with each other is inconceivable. (by all means read that word in a Wallace Shawn voice) First a few disclaimers. First disclaimer; everything I am about to suggest would begin after the destruction of Hamas as an organized terrorist group, with the leadership and majority of individual terrorists killed. In no way, shape, or form, do I believe that Israel has any obligation to do anything towards a long term solution until that has been accomplished. That inflection point mentioned above was created with the blood of 1400 Israeli civilians. That fact must not be forgotten. Second disclaimer; while this could be implemented in the near term, perhaps as soon as 2025, this is really an idea that will take, imo, 50-100 years to fully realize the potential. It took decades to get where we are now, so any realistic solution will likely take decades as well. Third disclaimer; this all presupposes 2 democracies, with full rights of citizenship for all residents. In other words, while Israeli Palestinians are already citizens, all Israelis living in the WB must, MUST, be granted citizenship immediately should they choose to remain in Palestine. This is in direct contravention of current Palestinian policy, so that is one thing that needs to change up front. OK, all that out of the way, let's solve the Middle East. Just to get things started, if something like what follows were proposed to the Saudis, they would accept this in a heartbeat and drag the Palestinians to the table for their own good.The reasons for this are primarily economic and discussed below. There would have to be 2 main points of integration; economic and security/military. Everything else would sort of fall into place over time. I’ll start with the latter because it will inform the former. First, some quick history. Mizrahi Jews (from N Africa and other Arab countries) were either expelled or forced to flee in the late 40s/early 50s. Those that came to Israel were of course accepted into the country right away, but the simple truth is that they were then treated like crap for years. That began to change, in no small part because as the kids began to hit 18, they all went into the IDF. Slowly, that allowed for their further integration into Israeli society, culture, and economy. And now, that integration is more or less complete. Mizrahis serve in all ranks of the IDF, and those that are not career military use their IDF connections just like the rest of Israelis do, and did from the very beginning. This is informative because although Yeshiva students are well known to be exempt from service, so are Israeli Arabs. So, as a first step I would say that the Israeli Arab exemption should be dropped. Make it mandatory, and the same process I just described will begin again. Now for the part thats going to make a lot of heads explode: In a few years (to be negotiated, TBN going forward) Palestinians will be allowed to join. Not required, but allowed.The first few will see other Palestinians (Israeli Arabs) already in uniform. They will therefore begin to have the same access to the “old boys network” that the Ashkenazis started, the Mizrahis benefited from, and that the Israeli Arabs are beginning to utilize. And, again, over time, this will increase as the old boys network begins to do its thing for the Palestinians who do join up. Now, if you have come this far, yes, I am saying that there should be one military, and that it should be the IDF. First of all, it exists. There is no PDF. The PA security force is basically a police force with a lot of SWAT teams. (Quick aside on police; that should integrate also, and since there is already some cooperation it could happen fairly quick. And I mean integration, as in Palestinian burglars in Nablus may get arrested by an Israeli cop, and an Israeli drug dealer in Haifa could be arrested by a Palestinian cop.) Second, Israel has legitimate security concerns, and lets just be honest here. Israel has legitimate reasons to need time to build trust. I’m not ignoring the opposite side of that coin, but again, being honest, Israel has the stronger position here. It will insist on its concerns being addressed. However, and this is important too, in this type of agreement, Israel would be assuming responsibility for Palestine militarily. So for example, if Hezbollah were to fire rockets at Palestine instead of Israel (perhaps an attempt to kill the deal in its infancy) Israel would have to treat it the same as they do now, when rockets are fired into northern Israel, as an attack on its territory and respond in kind. By the time you get to the bottom tho, you will see that given the time frame above, that sort of threat will have dissipated. Needless to say, all of that is just a fraction of what needs to be negotiated, and of what could be accomplished over the course of decades, but on to economics. As security concerns begin to fade, citizens of both countries would be able to live and work in either, but of course only vote in their own. The above military integration would allow for connections to be made on both sides of the border. Businesses will be started by Israelis and Palestinians in both countries, and they will hire from both countries interchangeably. This will slowly ramp up because in Israel, its the military and connections made there that help to bind the country together. Those bonds will slowly be built across the border as well. All of this will, over time, continue to reduce the security concerns as well. In the big picture economically, let's start with the Abraham Accords (AA). We all know that Trump and Kushner don’t give a shit between them about peace, just money. But since they got the diplomatic ball rolling, there is no reason to let it stop. So, let's get the Saudis in for economic reasons. The I/P economies would slowly begin to integrate, and if the AA countries began to increase their economic ties with I/P that would begin to create an economic sphere consisting of I/P and the Arabian peninsula. I don’t think it would take too long to get Jordan involved, possibly even right up front, and once Egypt sees Eilat and Aqaba turning into one large port right next door they would jump on board as fast as they could. Lebanon and Syria need to both get their shit together, but a burgeoning economic powerhouse in the region would, let's just say, incentivize them. Give them 10-20 years and they would be part of it too. I’m not going to even try to extrapolate any of this to Iraq, or the rest of North Africa, and who the hell knows what Iran would do, or become over time. Jerusalem—Israeli city. Full stop. E Jerusalem too, with Palestinians there getting full citizenship from day one. They become more Israeli Arabs. I’ll grant that maybe they should be allowed to volunteer for the IDF as discussed above, at least at first. Once the Israeli Arabs who have been in Israel for decades start to serve, mandatory service would be applied to E J’lem as well. TBN As for the Old City, the Waqf can continue to handle Al Aqsa etc, but there needs to be a recognition that its called the Temple Mount for a reason, and Jews cannot be forbidden up there. Just like Arabs cannot be forbidden to access the Kotel if they want. TBN Obviously nothing is as “simple” as all this, but it seems to be a start. And it does one big thing that no one else seems to be able to figure out. It give Palestinians a way to live in their former homes—not houses, but areas—without diminishing the Jewish nature of Israel, because as I said above, they could only vote in Palestine. I mentioned above that Israelis living in the WB need to be given citizenship. Voting rights would need to be negotiated as well, because those there today are Israelis, and they would become Palestinians, but I think I’ve gone far enough, so I’ll just let that one lie for now. Of course there are a million details to be nitpicked, but enough for now. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/25/2201583/-Two-State-Solution?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/