Gideon Levy: "The Single-State Solution is Already Here"

It's hard to know what to say about the deepening cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, especially after the tragic killing of an Eritrean refugee apparently mistaken for an Arab attacker. The growing number of stabbings and the increasingly harsh crackdown in response is the sort of downward spiral that leads deeper into chaos, into disaster for both peoples.

Gideon Levy at Haaretz, long an advocate of a two-state solution, has a piece in Haaretz this week called "The Single-State Solution is already here." If you can't access he text at the link, here are excerpts from his conclusion:

We could go back to the two-state solution, of course. Not a bad idea, perhaps, but one that has been missed. Those who wanted a Jewish state should have implemented it while it was still possible. Those who set it on fire, deliberately or by doing nothing, must now look directly and honestly at the new reality: 600,000 settlers will not be evacuated. Without evacuation, there will not be two states. And without two states, only the one-state solution remains.

Now, of all times, out of the fire and despair, we must start talking about the last way out: equal rights for all. For Jews and Arabs. One state is already here, and has been for a long time. All it needs is to be just and do the right thing. Who’s against it? Why? And, most important, what’s the alternative?

 Not easy questions, and no easy answers. But as the abyss looms, questions both sides need to be asking.