By David M. Halbfinger, NY Times, Jan. 5, 2018
JERUSALEM–The Israeli right, emboldened by President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, is not the only faction arguing for a single state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Palestine Liberation Organization has also begun to ask whether that might not be such a bad idea, though it has a radically different view of what that state would look like.
As momentum ebbs for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both sides are taking another look at the one-state idea. But that solution has long been problematic for both sides.
For the Israelis, absorbing three million West Bank Palestinians means either giving up on democracy or accepting the end of the Jewish state. The Palestinians, unwilling to live under apartheid-like conditions or military occupation, have also seen two states as their best hope.
Now, for the first time since it declared its support for a Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel in 1988, the P.L.O. is seriously debating whether to embrace fallback options, including the pursuit of a single state.
“It’s dominating the discussion,” said Mustafa Barghouti, a physician who sits on the P.L.O.’s central council, which is to take up possible changes to the national movement’s strategy later this month.
Palestinian supporters envision one state with equal rights for Palestinians and Jews. Palestinians would have proportionate political power and, given demographic trends, would before long be a majority, spelling the end of the Zionist project.
That outcome is unacceptable to the Israeli right wing, which is pressing to annex the land on the occupied West Bank where Jewish settlers have built communities while consigning Palestinians to the areas where they live now.
Israeli proponents of these ideas freely acknowledge that the Palestinian areas would be considerably less than a state, at least to start: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has even called it a “state-minus.” Eventually, they say, the Palestinians could achieve statehood in a confederation with Jordan or Egypt, as part of Israel, or perhaps even independently–but not soon.
Both sides have long officially supported the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict while accusing the other of harboring designs on the whole territory. But Mr. Trump’s Jerusalem declaration last month changed the calculus.
The Trump administration has not endorsed a one-state solution, and it is working on its own peace plan, insisting that any final agreement, including borders, be negotiated by the two sides. But last month’s decision by the president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in defiance of a decades-old United States policy and international consensus and with no mention of a Palestinian claim on the city, was seen as putting his thumb on the Israeli side of the scale.
Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator, said that Mr. Trump’s declaration was the death knell for the two-state solution and that Palestinians should shift their focus to “one state with equal rights.” His position has since gained traction among the Palestinian leadership.
Under that idea, the Palestinian movement would shift to a struggle for equal civil rights, including the freedoms of movement, assembly and speech, and the right to vote in national elections. “Which could mean a Palestinian could be the prime minister,” Mr. Barghouti said.
To its Palestinian supporters, the one-state idea is bitter consolation after decades of striving for statehood under the Oslo peace accords, which many believe has achieved little aside from providing cover, and buying time, for Israel to expand settlements.
“When you support the two-state solution, you’re supporting Netanyahu,” said As’ad Ghanem, a political science lecturer at the University of Haifa who has been working with a group of Israelis and Palestinians on a one-state strategy for some time. “It is time for us Palestinians to present an alternative.”
“At least 30 percent of Palestinians support one-state when no one is talking about it,” said Hamada Jaber, an organizer of a group called the One State Foundation. “If there’s at least one political party on each side that will talk about it and adapt this strategy, the support will grow.”
The idea has stronger support among the young, said Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster, particularly students and professionals who have clamored for a change in strategy since the Arab spring in 2011.
“I’m 24,” said Mariam Barghouti, a writer and activist involved in one of the one-state efforts, and a distant relation of Mr. Barghouti. “All I’ve known is Oslo and the two-state negotiation process. I’ve witnessed how it’s only gotten worse for me and my generation.”
To the Israeli right, abandoning the two-state goal is a good thing, a long-term threat averted. But the Israeli right has not fully explained how its single state overcomes the demographic conundrum. Absorbing the nearly three million Palestinians on the West Bank would either spell the end of a Jewish state or destroy Israeli democracy if Palestinians were denied equal rights. Even a slim Jewish majority would be politically unable to deny Palestinians full citizenship and rights in a single sovereign state.
“I would never give citizenship to the masses of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria,” said Yoav Kisch, a member of Parliament from Mr. Netanyahu’s party who is advancing one autonomy plan, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
Eventually, he said, what’s left of the Palestinian areas could become part of Jordan or Egypt, or become some kind of “state-minus” with limited sovereignty. In the meantime, Mr. Kisch said, he would be willing to give full Israeli citizenship to only about 30,000 West Bank Palestinians who live in areas where he wants Israel to assert sovereignty.
Such a move would be unacceptable to the Palestinians.
What these two sharply different one-state visions share is a conviction that a two-state solution is out of reach.
To be sure, the P.L.O. is not giving up entirely on a two-state solution. It is still pursuing other diplomatic avenues. On Friday, for example, Mr. Erekat called on Arab League member states to act on past commitments to cut ties with any country that recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
And there is skepticism among both Palestinians and Israelis that Palestinian leaders like Mr. Erekat and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, would ever truly abandon the Oslo process, to which they have devoted their careers and to which they owe their livelihoods.
If and when a more liberal Israeli government is elected, it could also revive a two-state peace process.
But the costs and political difficulty of withdrawing Israelis from the West Bank grow with every settler family that moves in.
Daniel C. Kurtzer, a Princeton professor who was ambassador to Egypt in the Clinton administration and to Israel under George W. Bush, noted that about 120,000 Palestinian workers commuted to Israel every day, the Palestinian security services provided help to Israel in protecting its own population and the Palestinian Authority’s administration relieved Israel of the occupying power’s obligation to care for refugees.
“You and I will say, ‘It’ll never happen, they’ll come to their senses,’ “ Mr. Kurtzer said. “But how long can you live with the status quo? We’re going to wake up one day and it’s going to be effectively one state. It’s like ‘Thelma and Louise.’ You’re going down the highway and life is great. But there’s a cliff.”
Dennis Edwards: The Bible tells us in the last days before the dramatic Armageddon event takes place some amazing events are going to happen.
"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates (located in Iraq); and the water there of was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east (Iran and Pakistan?) might be prepared....For they are spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather together them to battle of that great day of God Almighty....And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."[Revelation 16:12,14,16]
One of those key events is that a Holy Covenant will be made and signed by many nations concerning the situation in the Middle East.
"And he (the Antichrist or beast) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (7 year period)"[Daniel 9:27a]
However, 3 and 1/2 years after the signing of the Holy Covenant, the agreement will be broken. Israel will be invaded and the Abomination of Desolation will be placed in the Temple.
"and in the midst of the week (or half way through the seven year period) he (the Antichrist) shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease (no doubt the renewed sacrifice performed at a new Third Temple in Jerusalem), and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation...."[Daniel 9:27b]
In another chapter of Daniel we are given more information: Daniel writes,
"For the ships of Chittem (Cyprus, where the NATO forces have a port, which just happens to be almost directly opposite of where Russia is building a permanent naval base in Tartus, Syria.) shall come against him (the Antichrist): therefore he shall have indignation against the holy covenant (though he was its author, see verse 11:22b "He is also the prince of the covenant."): so shall he do; he shall return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate."[Daniel 11:30-31]
Concerning the "abomination of desolation" Jesus himself said,
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whosoever reads let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains:...For then shall be great tribulation, such as was since not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."[Matthew 24:15,16, 21]
The importance of the events taking place in Israel is that there are certain sign posts proclaimed by the prophets concerning the end times and Christ's second coming. We must past through these sign posts before Christ can return according to Scripture. Knowing what those sign post are helps us to understand the events taking place in the Middle East and to where they will eventually culminate.
Here's what we are to expect:
[1] A rise of the Antichrist to power as a political/military leader and negotiator on the international scene.
[2] The signing of some sort of Holy Covenant which will give the Jewish people the possibility of renewing their religious sacrificial worship. We assume that this will take place in a restored Third Temple. We also speculate that the Holy Covenant will therefore involve the negotiation of the rebuilding of a Jewish Third Temple on or near to the present Temple Mount.
[3] The Holy Covenant will be confirmed by many nations or perhaps the United Nations. It will initially be a 7 year agreement.
[4] Because of the continual tensions and differing of opinions concerning the Middle East peace process, the covenant will be broken by its author who is none other than the Antichrist.
[5] He will stop the sacrificial worship and place the abomination that makes desolate in the Temple which marks the beginning point of the terrible period of world history known in the Bible as the Great Tribulation or Jacob's Trouble.
[6] The Great Tribulation will be a horrible period of religious persecution against all who do not conform to the Antichrist's one-world program, which includes the mark of the beast technology, possibly some sort of computer implant for identification to buy or sell.
"And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, frfee and dond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name....and his number is Six hundred threescore (a score is twenty, therefore three score equals sixty) and six," or 666.[Revelation 13:16,17]
This period could very well culminate with a nuclear confrontation. At the end of the horrendous tribulation period Christ returns in the clouds to catch his followers away in the famous rapture event.
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."[Matthew 24:29-31]
[7] Not long afterwards, possibly 45-75, the Battle of Armageddon takes place in Israel and ends with Christ's return to stop the warfare that is in danger of destroying all of mankind.[Revelation 19:11-21; Ezekiel 39:1-7, 17-22]
That's a short look at Bible prophecy as I see it. We are living in amazing times. That's why we have that uncertain feeling in our hearts that the world is going down the wrong road fast and furiously. A good understanding of Bible prophecy helps relieve the tension, and helps us trust in Him who is creator of Heaven and Earth, that He is in deed ultimately in control. He has told us before hand so that when these events come upon us, and they shall do some day, we will hold fast to His words and promises and be faithful witnesses unto the end just like our faithful ancestors were before us. Hold on to your horses, we could be in for the ride of our lives.
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