Two-state solution: How I “turned”

My friend Danielle recently asked me why I’ve been naïvely calling for a two-state solution since I remember the hijackings and terror attacks in the 70s, most notoriously Entebbe and Munich. How can I believe that the Palestinians will welcome peace, which they consider a compromise with them on the losing end. The simple answer is, many liberals, myself included, have unrealistic hopes for the world as a whole and the Middle East in particular.

I no longer believe a two-state solution is a viable or sensible solution to the blood feud between Israel and the Palestinians. Here’s what I wrote her:

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The 10-7 massacre “turned me.” I don’t think I need to explain that

As for the war, I’m against it and I’m angry. It was inevitable that Israel would go in to rescue the hostages. But then civilians of all ages became victims of this futile war, which should have caused the IDF to pull out immediately. And there’s no end in sight

When I was in the IDF, and between 1948 (Israel’s sovereignty year) and the first intifada, the IDF’s motto was “Weapon purity,” meaning we don’t kill civilians or anybody who’s not threatening us. We were proud of that. We lost it. And it’s all because Likkud became the ruling party in 1978. Until then, Labor had run the country, and though it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t a collection of radical religious fundamentalists and nationalist/fascists. Some in Netanyahu’s posse call for the expulsion of all Arabs to other Arab countries (as if anybody would take them).

As for your reference to the 70s, I had  always believed that the Palestinians would get fed up with the violence and reach a two-state arrangement with us. But that’s a naïve fantasy. They want their children to be martyrs. They chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” That’s a call for the extinction of 8 million Jews who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. You can’t have peace with them.

Also, letting Palestine become sovereign with an army and an Air Force spells suicide for Israel.

It’s all hopeless. <<