People Who Say That Abbas's Referendum Endorses a Two State Solution are Either Ignorant or Lying
We're sure that this point was made in many places when Abbas's referendum was initially announced, but recent news articles indicate that many journalists have yet to understand what ought to be a very basic point. There are currently over 1,000 news articles cataloged on Google News which seem to in some way or another state that the prisoners' platform embraces a "two state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When you read tripe like this, you should think "wow, that's a really stupid way to describe the referendum"
Not to be overly pedantic, but the phrase "two-state solution" is usually taken to mean that there would be actually be two different kinds of states after a peace deal: one (generally referred to as "Israel") is supposed to be a majority Jewish state while the other (generally referred to as "Palestine") is to become the national homeland for largely Muslim Arabs. This referendum, in contrast, explicitly demands an Arab right of return into Israel. It would grant the Palestinians a state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and while also throwing open Israel's borders open to millions and millions of these Palestinians' closest friends and relatives.
Now, if we were Palestinians bent on the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel, we would definitely vote for this referendum. Why? Because it would be a really good way to destroy the Jewish state of Israel.
First, there are the sheer demographics of the situation - there are currently about 5 million Jews and about 1 million non-Jewish Arabs living in Israel. There are between 5 and 8 million Arabs usually designated as Palestinian refugees scattered among various Arab states and UN camps. Second, these populations tend to be more radical than the Palestinians who have had to live side by side with Jews in the West Bank (hmm... maybe it's not really the "daily presence and humiliation of the Occupation" that radicalized Arabs against Israel) At the risk of being pedantic again, but the best case scenario would be that Israel would remain a democratic state rather than a Muslim theocracy. With 5 million Jews would be outvoted by the 6-9 million Arabs, however, anything Jewish about the state of Israel would instantly be abolished. The second state in the "two-state solution" - the Jewish one - would cease to exist.
Abbas's referendum asks Palestinians to choose between Fatah's usual advocacy of destroying Israel demographically and Hamas's usual advocacy of destroying Israel militarily. "Two-state solution" indeed.
When you read tripe like this, you should think "wow, that's a really stupid way to describe the referendum"
Not to be overly pedantic, but the phrase "two-state solution" is usually taken to mean that there would be actually be two different kinds of states after a peace deal: one (generally referred to as "Israel") is supposed to be a majority Jewish state while the other (generally referred to as "Palestine") is to become the national homeland for largely Muslim Arabs. This referendum, in contrast, explicitly demands an Arab right of return into Israel. It would grant the Palestinians a state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and while also throwing open Israel's borders open to millions and millions of these Palestinians' closest friends and relatives.
Now, if we were Palestinians bent on the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel, we would definitely vote for this referendum. Why? Because it would be a really good way to destroy the Jewish state of Israel.
First, there are the sheer demographics of the situation - there are currently about 5 million Jews and about 1 million non-Jewish Arabs living in Israel. There are between 5 and 8 million Arabs usually designated as Palestinian refugees scattered among various Arab states and UN camps. Second, these populations tend to be more radical than the Palestinians who have had to live side by side with Jews in the West Bank (hmm... maybe it's not really the "daily presence and humiliation of the Occupation" that radicalized Arabs against Israel) At the risk of being pedantic again, but the best case scenario would be that Israel would remain a democratic state rather than a Muslim theocracy. With 5 million Jews would be outvoted by the 6-9 million Arabs, however, anything Jewish about the state of Israel would instantly be abolished. The second state in the "two-state solution" - the Jewish one - would cease to exist.
Abbas's referendum asks Palestinians to choose between Fatah's usual advocacy of destroying Israel demographically and Hamas's usual advocacy of destroying Israel militarily. "Two-state solution" indeed.
