U.S. establishment acknowledges death of two-state solution

 

U.S. establishment begins to acknowledge death of two-state solution

Image: President Joe Biden speaks with by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., left, and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich, as he arrives at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Tuesday, May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Dear stan, The news from Palestine is more disturbing by the hour. Look at this march by thousands of messianic Israelis through the occupied West Bank– to claim the land for the Jews and tell Palestinians, you don’t belong here. And there are government ministers in the parade. I don’t see how any American can look at that march and not conclude, This is the world that Zionism made, and it’s a dystopia, of Jewish supremacy. (OK maybe if you’re Al Franken!)  As readers know, I cling to good news. And this week I wanted to pass along two items that show that the discourse of the two-state solution is beginning to fragment in the United States. Yes, that has been happening for some time. But unlike John Kerry’s “poof” moment of 2014, it’s getting harder to shut people up for telling the truth about apartheid. Item 1 is the letter to the Biden administration signed by 14 Congresspeople calling for conditioning U.S. aid to Israel because of “systemic violence” against Palestinians. Only 14? Yes, but the 14 are more than the 7 or 8 who would have signed this letter a year ago. Bernie Sanders is on there, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman whose district goes into Westchester. Soon we will have Sen. Chris Van Hollen! Some day Chris Murphy too, I bet. The reality is just too crushing to continue to deny. Which brings me to– Item 2 is a long piece in Foreign Affairs called “Israel’s One State Reality“ by Shibley Telhami and three other establishment political scientists. I remember Naomi Klein saying, “It’s one state right now” back in 2010, but finally this consciousness is being forced inside the mainstream. The distinguished authors will give talks at Harvard and Brookings.  The best thing about this article is its bluntness. One state “is not a future possibility; it already exists, no matter what anyone thinks.” And they use the word Apartheid to describe that state. Israel “has locked in a system of Jewish supremacy.”  American Jews are now “roiled” by this reality. Most of them are liberals. But “Israel’s commitment to liberalism has always been shaky. As a Jewish state, it “fosters a form of ethnic nationalism rather than a civic one.”  The other best thing about the article is that it describes the battle to keep the one-state reality out of the American discourse. “Naming this reality is politically contentious.” The fact of a one-state reality has been obvious for years, but “those who spoke the truth out loud were ignored or punished for doing so.” Now that’s changed.  From their lips to the Beltway’s ears!  Let’s reflect that when she ran for Congress in 2018, Rashida Tlaib was de-endorsed by J Street because she spoke the truth about an illusion: there is no two-state solution. But in spite of that curse, Rashida Tlaib has just grown in stature. In an iconic moment in 2021, she intervened with Biden on the tarmac in Detroit to help end an Israeli slaughter after ten days. She is a hero to many on the left, including many liberal Jews, for speaking of the apartheid reality.  Rashida Tlaib is on that Sanders-Bowman letter. Anti-Zionists are now leading the discourse on the left, and liberal Zionists can join up or not. But don’t lie about the reality. Democrats now sympathize with Palestinians over Israelis by a sizeable margin. It’s a new world, in the U.S. anyway. How’s that for positivity?  Thanks for reading,

Phil Weiss, Founder & Senior Editor