Trump’s turning Israel into an apartheid state
FOR the past 50 years, hopes of a peace deal in the Middle East have hung on the ‘two-state solution’ between Israelis and Palestinians. This has meant an internationally recognised Palestinian state operating alongside Israel, with one state for Arabs and another for Jews.
But President Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — despite Palestinians claiming it to be theirs, too — has smashed any hope of the two-state solution.
This leaves a ‘one-state’ solution, a larger Israel composed of both Palestinians and Jews stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. But this means Israel faces a stark choice. It can either allow all citizens, Jews and Palestinians alike, the vote. Yet because the Palestinians will become more populous over time, this would inevitably mean that Israel will cease to be a Jewish state.
Or it can remain a Jewish state, but only at the cost of not allowing Palestinians to vote. In other words, it would be an apartheid state. In which case, Israel would soon be spurned by the outside world, as happened to South Africa after World War II.