Proponents of the so-called "two state solution" overlook the fact that a two state solution was implemented in Palestine decades ago: Jordan was formed by slicing off nearly 80% of the Palestine Mandate's territory, controverting the League of Nations plan that Palestine would be the location of the reborn Jewish State after the Jewish people had suffered in exile for nearly two millennia.
Menachem Begin, Israel's Prime Minister from 1977-83, understood that a
"two state solution" is based on a lie that Palestine has not already
been divided into two states, and is proposed as a means for destroying
Israel. In 1981, when West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt stated that Germans have a moral obligation to facilitate the creation of another Palestinian state
in addition to Jordan by carving territory out of Israel, Begin did not mince words:
From a moral point of view, Schmidt's statements certainly rank as the most callous ever heard. It seems that the Holocaust had conveniently slipped his memory and he did not make mention of a million and a half small children murdered, of entire families wiped out.
The German debt to the Jewish people can never end, not in this generation and not in any other. The entire nation cheered on the murderers as long as they were victorious. But what do we hear? We hear of a commitment to those who strove to complete what the Germans had started in Europe.
Begin declared that Schmidt "must have concluded some very lucrative business deals with Saudi Arabia."
Begin's conclusion about Schmidt's motivations is the same conclusion that I have reached about both President Trump and President Biden. President Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century" envisions a two state solution and thus puts Israel's survival at risk. President Biden's funding of the PLO's "Pay for Slay" program compensates terrorists for murdering Jews, and President Biden's impotent response to Iran's nuclear program and sponsorship of terrorism has emboldened the Iranians to attack U.S. and Israeli targets in the Mideast. I believe that President Trump, President Biden, and many other leaders are well compensated for their advocacy of the "two state solution" and other policies that clearly do not represent the best interests of the United States (or anyone else other than Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others who stand to make money from brokering such deals).
President Biden is not as overtly hostile to Israel as his predecessors Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter, but Biden--like most U.S. Presidents--has an agenda that is at best indifferent to Israel's survival, and Begin understood this when he confronted then-Senator Biden in 1982 regarding the possibility of U.S. aid to Israel being reduced if Israel dared to allow Jewish people to live in Judea and Samaria (often erroneously called "The West Bank," a name which makes no sense geographically or politically, as the territory in question is part of the Palestine Mandate and does not constitute the entire western bank of the Jordan River):
Don't threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.
The notion that any place in the world should be "Judenrein"--let alone places within the Land of Israel such as Judea and Samaria--is despicable. Even if yet another Arab state is carved out of the territory of the former Palestine Mandate, why wouldn't Jews be allowed to live there? For that matter, why are Jews not welcome to live in Gaza, and in many Arab/Muslim countries?
Instead of blaming Israel for problems that Israel did not cause and cannot unilaterally solve, it should be noted that Jews are not welcome throughout most of the Arab/Muslim world: after Israel's rebirth in 1948, more than 800,000 Jews were expelled (or fled to avoid being killed) from Arab/Muslim countries. It also should be noted that the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan--accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by Arab leaders--further divided what little remained of the Palestine Mandate. What should have happened in 1948 is a population exchange, which is what typically happens after a war: the expelled Jews should have found homes in Israel (which most of them did, though some went to other countries), and the Arabs living in the western 20% of Palestine that became Israel should have either accepted Israeli citizenship (which many did) or else moved to Jordan or other countries to become full citizens. The world's cynical manufacturing, manipulation, and perpetuation of a "Palestinian refugee crisis"--including but not limited to the creation of a corrupt UN agency (UNRWA) separate from the UN agency that deals with every other refugee crisis around the world--has resulted in much misery for both Arabs and Jews.
The reality is that a two state solution has already been implemented, and it has failed because (1) creating two states in Palestine has not brought peace, (2) the "Palestinian refugees" have not been resettled in Jordan (or any other Arab country), and (3) Jordan is a non-democratic state that is barely functional. It does not make sense to assert that carving a third state out of the Palestine Mandate's territory would lead to peace, or solve the "Palestinian refugee crisis" (which should have been solved decades ago, and could be solved tomorrow if Arab nations were willing to take care of their brethren instead of exploiting them for public relations purposes). It is delusional to think that carving a third state out of the Palestine Mandate's territory would even result in the creation of a stable, functioning nation: the Gazans spent the past two decades using billions of dollars of foreign aid to build a terrorist stronghold, not a functioning state. It cannot be said that Hamas does not represent ordinary Gazans when the evidence shows otherwise: Gazans voted Hamas into power, polls have repeatedly shown that most Gazans support Hamas, and Gazan civilians were active, enthusiastic participants in Hamas's October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack (and UNRWA personnel actively collaborated with Hamas before, during, and after the attack).
For several decades, outside forces have coerced Israel into failing to achieve decisive victory each time she has been attacked by her Arab/Muslim neighbors, but Israel must not permit that to happen now. Israel's war against Hamas must continue until all of these events happen:
1) Hamas is eliminated as a functioning terrorist, military, and political entity.
2) Hamas' state sponsors--including but perhaps not limited to Iran and Qatar--must pay reparations for the killed, for the injured, and for the destruction of property.
3) All hostages held by Hamas must be released immediately and unconditionally.
Israel is under no legal or moral obligation to waste more money funding terrorist organizations in Gaza. Hamas attempted to use Gaza as a launching pad to destroy Israel, Hamas failed, and now Hamas and the Gazans who voted Hamas into power will have to live with the consequences of their bad choices and their military defeat. Name one other terrorist entity in world history that launched a failed war of extermination (Hamas' stated goal regarding Israel) and then was rewarded by being granted statehood in the very territory from which it launched the failed war of extermination? That is not how the world works.
"Two state solution" is just the polite way of saying "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." As I noted in the immediate aftermath of Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel, "When Israel's Arab neighbors and their self-proclaimed 'progressive' supporters chant 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' those words must be understood for their literal meaning and intention: every Jew from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is to be killed, Israel is to be destroyed, and yet another authoritarian Arab/Muslim state is to be established. The Arabs don't want 'land for peace'; they want to kill Jews and take control of all of the land from the 'river to the sea.' They mean exactly what they say. This is a sad and scary reality, but denying that reality will not change it. Israel's policies--and America's policies--must be grounded in reality and must be directed toward making sure that 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' is a slogan consigned to history's dustbin."
The Arabs/Muslims control most of the territory spanning from Morocco to Pakistan, and they will have to be satisfied with not controlling an area barely twice the size of Los Angeles County that is the historic homeland of the Jewish people. What many Arabs/Muslims and others fail to understand is that the Jewish people did not colonize the Land of Israel. The Romans, Turks, British, and others were the colonizers. The Jewish people returned home, and triumphed over the colonizers. The Jewish people have as much right as any other nation to live peacefully in their homeland.
October 7, 2023 is a defining historical moment. Anyone who still advocates for the "two state solution" after October 7 is either clueless, paid off, or trying to destroy Israel. Zionism is a just cause and a successful movement, regardless of the slanders and lies promulgated about the Jewish people. There is fear and shame at the heart of antisemitism and anti-Zionism because of how much the Jewish people have accomplished in Israel: triumphing over the British colonists and sending them packing back home, repeatedly defeating Arab aggressors despite being vastly outnumbered, and building a thriving democracy with a modern economy.
Israel is a role model for what post-colonialist nations can accomplish with hard work and the right mindset; her enemies provide examples of the depravity to which humanity can sink with an entitlement mentality and an ideology based on "loving death more than you love life," which is the opposite of the Jewish worldview.
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