It’s a busy time for news about Jews. In Israel,
Benjamin Netanyahu
is assembling the most right-wing, pro-settlement government in the country’s history even as violence between Israelis and Palestinians surges. In the U.S., Donald Trump sat down to dinner with some of the country’s most unhinged anti-Semites.
Like it or loathe it, the inclusion of pro-settlement and pro-annexation parties in the next Israeli government is a recognition of political reality. Israeli public opinion is increasingly influenced by Mizrahi or Middle Eastern Jews whose ancestors were driven from their homes in Arab countries because of the conflict. These Jews often feel no responsibility for or guilt about the plight of the Palestinians.
That leaves many Israeli politicians less willing to give up the West Bank, which is a problem for the Biden administration and American Jews. Support for a two-state solution that protects Israeli security while securing self-determination for Palestinians unites the many Democrats who wish both Israelis and Palestinians well. And it is a position that allows liberal American Jews to reconcile their support for the Jewish state with a commitment to the human rights of all peoples, Palestinians included.
The fading prospects of the two-state solution exacerbate the conflict between progressive and centrist Democrats over Israel policy while polarizing opinion among American Jews. The dwindling prospects also open the door to those hoping to delegitimize the Jewish state. If Zionism leads to an “apartheid state,” some progressives argue, the only moral choice is a single state where all the inhabitants of former British Palestine (modern Israel, Gaza and the West Bank) enjoy equal rights.
Superficially appealing, the one-state solution is both wildly impractical and grossly unjust. More than a century of conflict hasn’t prepared two different peoples to live harmoniously in a single state. In addition, Israel, a regional superpower enjoying unprecedented friendly relations with the most powerful Arab states, won’t voluntarily surrender its sovereignty no matter how many American colleges pass boycott, divestment and sanctions, or BDS, resolutions.
To argue that the Jewish state must continually earn the right to exist by satisfying its moral critics and political opponents is absurd. People criticize Chinese actions in…
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