Different formulas for striking a resolution to the Arab-Israeli Conflict have been advanced for decades. One sticking point seems banal on its surface, with ambiguous language which whitewashes the implausibility of implementation.

“A” Two State Solution Versus “The” Two State Solution

The United States has called for “A” two state solution, which is “two states for two peoples,” as President Biden has often said. One country is the Jewish State of Israel and the other country will become an Arab State of Palestine.

This is very different from the similarly named Arab-preferred “The” two state solution, which is the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. That plan calls for an Arab State of Palestine and a bi-national state of Israel. That is not a formula for “two states for two people” but “one purely Arab state of Palestine and one state where Jews are allowed to live in Israel.”

The Arab two state plan calls for a “Right of Return” of 14 million Arabs who have some roots in Palestine to enter either Israel or Palestine, depending where ancestors had lived. Israel now has roughly 7.2 million Jews, so the clear goal is to end Jewish sovereignty in their homeland.

The difference is stark and both Republicans and Democrats in the United States fully understand the nature of the Arab claim for a “right of return” to end the Jewish state.

In a April 14, 2004 letter from U.S. President George W. Bush to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Bush wrote “It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.”

The Democrats had an almost identical clause in its platform (until President Barak Obama removed it) which stated “the creation of a Palestinian state through final status negotiations, together with an international compensation mechanism, should resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees by allowing them to settle there, rather than in Israel.“

A return for refugees would end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
BDS Leader, Omar Barghouti

The principle of “Two states for two people” and an Arab “Right of return” are mutually exclusive, and must be stated clearly by those pretending to advance an end to the conflict.