Israel/Palestine and the Politics of a Two-State Solution

Summary: This is a dispassionate examination of the viability of a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the politics of Israel, Palestine and the United States. It includes instructive case studies from South Africa in Namibia and the Irish claim to Northern Ireland. The results of Israeli elections from 2001 to 2013 are analyzed (with the conclusion that the Likud will be in any government coalition for at least the midterm future, giving it a veto over policy). A chapter examining the history and ideology of the secular right over the last 90 years follows. There are three chapters of case studies: the Likud withdrawal from the Sinai in 1979-1982 and from Gaza in 2005, the withdrawal of South Africa from Namibia in 1988-1989 and the dropping of Ireland's constitutional claim to Northern Ireland in 1998 under a Fianna Fail government-the same party that wrote the constitution in 1937. A chapter examines Palestinian politics since the mandatory era and another, the American-Israeli alliance and American politics. A concluding chapter draws lessons from the case studies and the analysis.

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