Far-Left Author Reiterates: Two-State Solution Is Dead

Continuing to espouse controversial views, Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua reiterated his call for a “one-state solution,” refining it into a “federation” between Israelis and Palestinians. Speaking at a Meretz event, Yehoshua said that there was no possibility of removing Jews from their homes in Yehudah and Shomron, or in mass deportations of Arabs to neighboring countries.

“We live with the Palestinians in one reality,” he said. “We live in East Jerusalem, and the settlement blocs are an equal part of Israel. The most disgusting – and unrealistic – thing you can say about Palestinians is ‘get them out of here.’ They are not going anywhere – the brother of the Palestinian a soldier shot may work in the settlement where he lives, and his cousin may work as a nurse in a Petach Tikvah hospital.

“We need a dialog between the moderate settlers and the Palestinians,” said Yehoshua. “The Palestinians are fooling themselves if they think that someone will come in from the outside and pressure us. We know how to withstand pressure. The solution must come from within.”

Last month, Yehoshua made similar remarks in an interview with Maariv. “The two-state solution is now impossible,” Yehoshua said. “All my life I fought for it, but we have to look at reality and stop fooling ourselves. You are not going to evict 450,000 people from Area C.”

“The Palestinians want a one-state solution, not just 22 percent of Palestine, despite their claims otherwise. That is why they keep dragging their feet,” Yehoshua told Maariv’s Shalom Yerushalmi. “They are not going anywhere.” Basically, Yehoshua said, Israel is stuck with the Palestinians, and just as it developed a way to live with them within Israel proper, it is going to have to do so in Yehudah and Shomron.

Commenting on Yehoshua’s remarks, Meretz head Zehava Gal-On slammed Yehoshua’s ideas, which “despair of the two-state solution, which is the only solution, and instead prefer the one-state solution.”