Michael Tarazi, an American lawyer and advisor for the PLO, received op-ed space in the NY Times to call for a one-state ‘solution’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tarazi claims that Israel’s (and most of the world’s) strategy for a two-state solution is to ‘segregate non-Jews while taking as much of their land and resources as possible,’ and thinks it possible to create a multicultural utopia west of the Jordan:
The one-state solution, however, neither destroys the Jewish character of the Holy Land nor negates the Jewish historical and religious attachment (although it would destroy the superior status of Jews in that state). Rather, it affirms that the Holy Land has an equal Christian and Muslim character.
Former NY Times foreign correspondent Clifford May responded with a scathing op-ed of his own in the Washington Times:
And if Israelis refuse to willingly become a despised minority in their own country, ruled by people who have waged genocidal campaigns against them, that will demonstrate, Mr. Tarazi declares, “Christians and Muslims, the millions of Palestinians under occupation are not welcome in the Jewish state.” “Not welcome.” Imagine that. The nerve. The chutzpah.
As Mr. Tarazi well knows but neglects to mention, there is only one Jewish state on the planet. It’s about the size of New Jersey. By contrast, there are 22 Arab nations and more than 50 predominantly Muslim countries, covering an area larger than the United States and Europe combined.
In these lands, Jews are, to varying degrees, conspicuously unwelcome. In Jordan, a relatively liberal country that has diplomatic relations with Israel, Jews are denied citizenship. In Saudi Arabia, no synagogue or church may be built.
Meanwhile, editors at the LA Times (without referring to Tarazi’s piece) reject the one-state idea ‘percolating through the Western intelligentsia and even into left-wing circles in Israel’:
So what is the problem [with the ‘one-state solution’]? It’s that such a state would not be Jewish. The premise of Zionism — the premise of Israel — is that Jews need and deserve their own state… A single state encompassing Israel and the disputed territories would reinvent this problem. It would bring the descendants of many 1948 refugees back into the fold, along with other Arabs. The higher Arab birthrate would make Jews a shrinking minority.
Many Americans might ask, so what? The United States prides itself on being a melting pot of different races, ethnicities and religions. But most countries are more like Israel. They define themselves ethnically or religiously or (like the surprising new states that popped up out of the dying Soviet empire) by some ancient and long-suppressed geographical chauvinism.
