Survey finds that majority of Jewish Israelis think the country should unilaterally determine its borders along the route of the West Bank separation barrier. One-third support either annexing the West Bank without giving Palestinians civil rights, or perpetuating the status quo -- both of which are apartheid. According to a poll* released Sunday, a majority of Jewish Israelis (57 percent) believe Israel should determine its borders unilaterally according to the current route of the separation wall, which cuts deep into the West Bank, winding through Palestinian land well east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (Green Line). This confirms that 1) Israelis…

No matter what their beliefs about Palestinians’ aims and desires, the policy of Israel’s leaders does not accord with their stated support for a two-state solution or for a democratic and Jewish state. Following up on my post regarding the two-state solution (and some of the comments to that post), I would like to put forth a more general and formal version of my argument. Let’s say that you are stridently opposed to the idea of one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean - one that would be undemocratic, and based on the explicit, formal and institutionalized supremacy…

The question is no longer about whether one state should be considered, as there is only one state which governs over two people. The question is which kind of state it will be: the left or the right-wing version. The protests a few weeks ago in the West Bank against Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, once the hope for an institutional and economic state-builder for Palestine, look like one more sign of failure for the emergence of a de facto if not de jure Palestinian state. In the lead-up to September 2011, the Palestinian state appeared poised to advance towards greater general legitimacy. Internationally, the political zeitgeist was…

Greta Berlin's anti-Semitic tweet was but one in a series of comments she has made, enabling many of her critics to discredit the entire Free Gaza Movement. As activists, it is our job to make sure one bigotry can never be used to justify another. By Tom Pessah An Iranian American acquaintance once explained to me the predicament she’s in. She’s a committed feminist who wants to expose and critique any examples of male domination in Iran. Yet whenever she does so, her critique is immediately seized upon by those wishing to justify the next war, which could harm her…

Mitt Romney sparked controversy during his visit to Jerusalem last week, thanks to a series of comments he made about Jews and Palestinians. Naturally, his comments about Palestinian culture being inferior to Jewish culture, and God's unfavorable bias against Palestinians, angered many Palestinians, who are worried that Romney could win the election. However, does that make Romney the preferred candidate for Jews or Israelis?  In this video produced by Bloggingheads.com, Matt Duss from the Center for American Progress and I discussed Romney's visit to Jerusalem and its consequences, the U.S administration's policies in the region, and the viability of the two-state solution. Related posts:…

This post was originally published on Peter Beinart's Open Zion blog (@ The Daily Beast), as part of a debate regarding the fate of the two-state solution. This piece by Jerry Haber, on the same issue, is worth reading as well. And if you have the stomach for it, here is rightwing MK Danny Danon (Likud), who wants to annex most of the West Bank without giving the Palestinians voting rights. _______________ In the wake of a unity deal between the Likud and Kadima, which resulted in one of Israel's largest coalitions in history, some claimed that there is a chance…

By Moriel Rothman I have attended all three J Street conferences since the organization formed in 2008 with the dual objectives of pushing the US government to take an active role in bringing about a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and changing the discourse within the mainstream American Jewish community to one that is more open, critical, value-driven and, yes, left-wing. J Street was the only major Jewish organization I knew of willing to criticize the insanity of that "war" and of other Israeli policies. Following J Street’s first conference in October of 2009, I decided to throw my…

I gotta hand it to Bibi. Seriously, the guy’s a magician. Today, in what has been coined the most important summit between Netanyahu and Obama since they both took office, the most important issue will not be discussed. Instead of talking about how to end a 45-year-old unnecessary occupation, these dimwits are going to discuss an unnecessary war. Instead of talking about what America and Israel could - and should - do to stop a massacre (some already using the word “genocide”) taking place in Syria as they speak, these losers are going to talk about a massacre that doesn’t…

Most boycotters would deny Israel’s right to exist, or deny Israeli's right to self-determination. They would install Palestine in its place, instead of by its side. By Noam Wiener Apartheid week is here again and with it the debate about Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). Norman Finkelstein gave an interview, Sean O’Neil responded indignantly. Bradley Burston wrote a piece in Haaretz, Noam Sheizaf responded here on +972. I want to focus more on the choice to boycott, and less on whether it is effective, whether BDS is a big or a small movement, or whether the one state solution is…

A brilliant piece of reporting from Mitchell Plitnick, former director of the US office of B'Tselem. According to Plitnick, the Republican National Committee has adopted a resolution supporting one state in Israel-Palestine. The text of the resolution can be found here. As Plitnick points out, the key passage that suggests that the Republican party is going one state reads as follows: BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the members of this body support Israel in their natural and God-given right of self-governance and self-defense upon their own lands, recognizing that Israel is neither an attacking force nor an occupier of the lands of others;…

Tomorrow, a group of preeminent Israelis will endorse Palestinian statehood along the 1967 borders, and call on compatriots to join them. Will a Palestinian "state" be a game changer? And, if so, will it mark a change for the better? A couple of weeks ago, Ami asked why the Israeli left isn't debating the prospect of Palestinian statehood being proclaimed and internationally recognized this year. It did not take long for an answer to emerge. Tomorrow, 17 recipients of the Israeli state's highest honor – the "Israel Prize" – will hold an event in front of the hall where Israeli…

"Instead of abandoning the two-state solution, let’s modify it, make it less vague and less subject to manipulation. We can do that by shifting the goalposts back to the 1967 borders. We need to say that these borders of the future Palestinian state are a given, not a variable." By Yossi Rapoport For a revolution to be successful, it needs both a common enemy and a shared alternative. In Egypt, the revolution was united in demanding the ‘isqat al-nizam’ the downfall of the regime, but also – leaderless as it was - in what it wanted: free and fair elections,…

At a peace NGOs' conference in Jericho a rift emerges between the old guard of the left and a post-Oslo generation of activists who are redefining traditional standpoints and values on all sides. By Shalom Boguslavsky Some expensive funeral, a gathering to exchange condolences, a front-row seat at a dinosaur extinction, a farewell event. These are a few of the cynical descriptions that billowed into the air of the Palestinian Israeli Peace NGO Forum conference in Jericho. And rightly so. The conference's center stage was taken by "peace camp" veterans and youngsters living in (and of) their social networks, and…