http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-state_solution

 

I'm seeing an increasing number of articles referencing this idea. It's a proposed way of solving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Instead of having separate states of Israel and Palestine, they'd be unified into a single "Isralestine" where everyone would receive equal rights regardless of ethnic background.

 

What do you think. Could it work? I think it's certainly an alternative to consider as the other alternatives seem to have all failed miserably and repeatedly.

It would work, but Israeli settlers would need to leave the west bank, and they are not going to do that as they have settled there explicitly to prevent the two-state solution from ever coming to fruition.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4752349n

If you'll pardon a little random mussing, in one sense I don't think there's been a failure. It took millions of years to climb out of the sludge, who knows how long it will take to put our violent natures behind us? Getting over religious obsessions is just a small part of that... shall we give it 10- or 15,000 more years? Seriously, we do seem to obsess sometimes (myself included) about getting things done during our puny lifetimes.

 

But I agree with the question even so, because we certainly won't get the job done sitting around and waiting for history to run its course! To that end, this is an interesting question for discussion, because it actually allows for the settlements in the occupied territories to remain (more or less) intact. On the other hand it more or less eliminates the Jewish state (which in my opinion isn't necessarily a bad thing, being a flawed idea to begin with).

There are other areas where Muslims, Jews, Christians and whatever else live in peace together.

Sarajevo was one of those places, then there came a war, and now it's peace again.

Therefore, in theory it is possible... even after some pretty horrible things happened. (I'm not saying that people there have forgotten and forgiven, I am merely saying they stopped shooting each other, which is my definition of peace).

 

Whether it is possible in "the Holy Land"... I don't know. I get the feeling that both Israelis and Palestinians are a lot more stubborn than people in other places... and that it has to do with the fact that some dudes built a bunch of temples on a couple of hills in that area a few thousand years ago.

 

Please note that I lack some historical knowledge and that I am well aware that I am over-simplifying things.