Can Israel Survive Without a Palestinian State?

The New York Times talks to experts about what the future may hold.

Palestine's chance of future statehood hangs in the balance.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The New York Times posed the question “Can Israel Survive Without a Palestinian State?” The occasion is the threat of a vote at the United Nations next week on Palestinian statehood or at least official observer status—equivalent to what the Vatican has.

Six people were asked to comment. A few excerpts from each are below. The entire piece can be found here.

Ronen Bergman, analyst with the daily Yedioth Ahronoth

“Israel’s deteriorating international situation demands immediate diplomatic action. The occupation of the West Bank is almost universally condemned as illegitimate, and if Israel continues to insist that it cannot exist without that territory, it is in danger of losing its own legitimacy as well.”

He concludes:

“Israel would benefit if the next rounds are fought from a position of international legitimacy.”

Daniel Gordis, author of Saving Israel

“Israel will not vote for Palestinian statehood, because the U.N. vote is more a referendum on Israel than it is on Palestine. Marginalized as never before, Israel is now witness to Iran’s continuing nuclear aspirations, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s cozying up to Iran by threatening Israel and Egyptian masses who despise Israel simply for existing.”

He concludes:

“Because such hatred of the Jewish state cannot be appeased, Israel has no good options at the moment. It will thus hunker down and hold on, hoping that the international community that voted to create the Jewish state just decades ago might soon return to its senses. “

Shibley Telhami is Anwar Sadat Professor at the University of Maryland

“On the one hand, majorities [Polls in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates] express support for a two-state solution based on the 1967 boundaries; on the other hand most believe it will never happen. But since majorities also think that the alternative will not be one state but protracted conflict, they are reluctant to give up the two-state solution.”

Would a Palestinian state be stable?

“The measure of instability should not be limited to the Palestinian state and its neighbors. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been destabilizing for the entire region and the world. Even a moderately successful accommodation that's acceptable to both sides will enhance global stability.”

Aaron David Miller, is a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center

“The bottom line on Israeli survival and the Palestinians is this: even without a settlement, Israelis will keep their state; the problem is that the Palestinians (and Arabs) will never let them completely enjoy it.”

He concludes

“Who knows where Israel will be 50 or 100 years from now? But states just don’t disappear. And for the foreseeable future — with or without a solution to the Palestinian problem — Israel will not only survive, but also is likely to prosper.”

Rami Khouri, American University in Beirut

“The easy answers to the two questions — Can Israel survive without a Palestinian state? Can Palestine be a stable state? – are an obvious “yes” and “yes.” Israel could survive as a garrison apartheidlike state, surrounded by massive walls and protective missile shields, and Palestine could be stable if it had real sovereignty and a nonpredatory Israeli neighbor.”

“The American-mediated ‘peace process’ has failed dismally and consistently for decades because it has given supremacy, or at least priority, to Israeli security concerns over parallel Palestinian rights to statehood, sovereignty and security.”

Dahlia Scheindlin is conducting doctoral research at Tel Aviv University on unilaterally declared states. She is a lecturer at Ben Gurion University, an independent public opinion researcher and political strategist. Dahlia blogs regularly at +972mag.com

“Israel’s legendary military prowess has never been able to counter the ‘demographic threat’—the existential fear of being outnumbered by non-Jews. Nor could Israel’s security obsession ever dissolve the liberal democratic threat, in which minority rights challenge the Jewish hegemony over cultural, political and economic life.”

“That’s why for nearly two decades, all Israeli leaders have acknowledged that the survival of a Jewish democratic state hangs on two states. Without Palestine, Israel will soon be forced to provide full political rights to West Bank Palestinians under its de facto control. The only thing about Israel that will survive is its name —if that.”

She concludes:

“Stabilization of the Palestinian state is Israel’s only chance to survive in more than its name. But Israel would have to do all it can to help, however, discreetly -- or at least, cause no more harm.”

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