Single-State Solution?

Many Israelis and Palestinians see a single Israeli/Palestinian State "From the River to the Sea", possibly combined with Jordan, as a long-term solution. History shows many examples of invaders, after a few generations, becoming assimilated into the conquered community as, for example, Normans and Saxons intermarried in England. However the immediate unilateral imposition of a single state in Israel-Palestine would bring Apartheid not only in the West Bank but also in Israel proper. A democratic single state would have to be a secular state: contrary to the aspirations of many Jews and many Muslims.

The notion that the Israeli and Palestinian communities would voluntarily unite flies in the face of recent political experience. During the past fifty years a number of states have fragmented, e.g. the Soviet Union, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Czechoslovakia and Sudan. In no case have two independent states come together to form a stable single state.
Two tendencies have emerged -

• On the one hand nation-states have tended to fragment. Scots, Kurds, Corsicans, the Flemish, Catalans, Chechens, French Canadians and many others have called for greater self-government.
• Simultaneously nation-states have been coming together in larger regional units such as the EU, while each retains its own flag, its own anthem, its own parliament and civil service and, of course, its own football team.
• Would an Israeli-Palestinian Federation be feasible?

• Consider also: Israeli fears and anxieties.
• Israeli aspirations.
• Palestinian hopes, and also Palestinian anxieties.
• Would the Status Quo be preferable?
• Is the example of post-apartheid South Africa relevant?
• Economic implications of alternative solutions.