Trump, Israel, and the Media - The Clusterfucking

Okay, it's headlines like this that make people believe in the whole "fake news"/biased media bullshit. "Trump, Meeting With Netanyahu, Backs Away From Palestinian State" is inaccurate and inflammatory. His full and complete quote (as put into the article itself) was "“I’m looking at two states and one state. I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”

It was his usual vapid non-speak, but it changes little RE: actual US policy. Did you think we would refuse to go to the negotiation table to discuss a one-state solution if the Palestinians had come and said "S'alright with us!"? That's basically all Trump is saying here: whatever works for both parties. Now the question is whether he actually *means* “both parties” or is lying through his teeth, but that would've been true even if he had come out to the podium praising the vital necessity of a Palestinian state at the top of his lungs. There's ALWAYS the strong probability that Mr. Trump is blatantly lying about things, so let's focus on that rather than misconstruing his actual words.

Here's a minor aside/confession: I don't disagree with his stated position when it is considered in a vacuum. A treaty with terms and land swaps that would allow BOTH a completely independent, sovereign, and viable Palestine AND a completely independent, sovereign, and viable Israel would be exceedingly difficult to achieve even if one set aside the massive cluster that is the mutual demand for Jerusalem. Unfortunately for a one-state solution, there are also all sorts of devils in the details of creating an *ethical* and *stable* merger.

As the article points out, Israel is founded on the core principles of being a democratic state AND a true Jewish homeland - it's not always been great at achieving or balancing those two goals, but the USA hasn't exactly provided the ability for every citizen to secure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", so let's set those issues aside for now. On a fundamental level, the integration of so many non-Jewish Palestinians as citizens would completely upend that balance - either the new citizens are accorded the same right to vote as everyone else, which would quickly diminish Israel's character as a fundamentally Jewish state (using the term as it applies to both culture and religion, since plenty of culturally Jewish Israelis are non-religious) OR the newly-minted Palestinian Israelis would be denied some portion of voting rights, which would be an incredible blow against the concept of universal democratic suffrage. From the Palestinian side, there would also need to be a reckoning with their demand to have property their families fled returned to inheritors or suitable individual reparations paid.

On top of that, any merger would look very similar to West/East Germany in the early 90s in terms of infrastructure and economic investment – Israel would be on the hook for (re)building a shattered land that’s dealing with decades of damage at every level imaginable. A not-insignificant chunk of that damage has been DUE to Israel, but another big chunk has been due to corruption and incompetence by the Palestinian Authority. I’m not going down the rabbit hole of assigning blame for the past here, but rather focusing on roadblocks to moving forward.

Looking at these obstacles, my opposition to a one-state solution boils down to the fact that any stability in such a unified state would involve the suppression of basic freedoms or the forced relocation of huge numbers of people to achieve a more “sustainable” demographic mix. I don’t have the stomach for endorsing either option, so some version of a two state solution is all that’s really left. My ideal end? Two geographically coherent states bound together in an economic free trade agreement, with the various outside parties who keep trying to negotiate a peace forced to put their money where their mouth is by sinking resources and capital into rebuilding a viable Palestine that can stand alongside Israel rather than fester and be abused by the various countries around it (its so-called Arab “allies” being very much included).

Even this, though, has massive roadblocks in front of it. An economic union cannot stand without loosening border restrictions, which could only happen if Israel had guarantees that Palestine could keep a lid on terrorist threats. Israel, in turn, would have to respect the territorial integrity of Palestine and come down hard on settlements across the border. Both sides would have to hold onto enough trust and mutual goodwill to tolerate an armed neighbor so closely intertwined with them. Also, third parties would actually have to put financial skin in the game to help prop things up, while trusting that their aid wouldn’t get funneled to some politician’s private bank account. I just don’t see any of that coming soon.

Okay, so that wasn’t a minor aside ;) but hey, at least it was cheery and upbeat!

#yourpersonalraincloud