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The One-State Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock
"A clear, trenchant book on a topic of enormous importance . . . a courageous plunge into boiling waters. If The One-State Solution helps propel forward a debate that has hardly begun in this country it will have performed a signal scholarly and political function."---Tony Judt, New York University
". . . a pioneering text. . . . [A]s such it will take pride of place in a brewing debate."---Gary Sussman, Tel Aviv University
"The words ‘The One-State Solution' seem to strike dread, at the least, or terror, at the most, in any established, institutional, or mainstream discourse having to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. . . . It therefore takes great courage---and I use the word literally---to title explicitly a book under that infamous label. . . . Virginia Tilley is blessed with such courage and complements it with the requisite academic erudition. . . . Weaving her way through the historical progression of Zionism and through late 20th century and current international and Middle Eastern politics, she shows how the additional, pernicious state of settlement expansion (abetted by other massive human rights violations that go with the occupation) has brought us to the point where only a one-state solution can provide a just peace (and not just a state of conflict management going under the misnomer of peace)."--- Anat Biletsky, Middle East Journal
Recent events have once more put the Israeli-Palestinian issue on the front page. After decades of failed peace initiatives, the prospect of reconciliation is in the air yet again as the principal actors maneuver to end the conflict and---the world hopes---bring peace to the region. A one-state solution is a way toward that peace and needs serious, renewed consideration.
The One-State Solution explains how Israeli settlements have encroached on the occupied territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to such an extent that any Palestinian state in those areas is unworkable. And it reveals the irreversible impact of Israel's settlement grid by summarizing its physical, demographic, financial, and political dimensions.
Virginia Tilley elucidates why we should assume that this grid will not be withdrawn---or its expansion reversed---by reviewing the role of the key political the Israeli government, the United States, the Arab states, and the European Union.
Finally, Tilley focuses on the daunting obstacles to a one-state solution---including major revision of the Zionist dream but also Palestinian and other regional resistance---and offers some ideas about how those obstacles might be addressed.
Virginia Tilley is Chief Research Specialist in the Democracy and Governance Division of the Human Resources Council in Cape Town, South Africa.
". . . a pioneering text. . . . [A]s such it will take pride of place in a brewing debate."---Gary Sussman, Tel Aviv University
"The words ‘The One-State Solution' seem to strike dread, at the least, or terror, at the most, in any established, institutional, or mainstream discourse having to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. . . . It therefore takes great courage---and I use the word literally---to title explicitly a book under that infamous label. . . . Virginia Tilley is blessed with such courage and complements it with the requisite academic erudition. . . . Weaving her way through the historical progression of Zionism and through late 20th century and current international and Middle Eastern politics, she shows how the additional, pernicious state of settlement expansion (abetted by other massive human rights violations that go with the occupation) has brought us to the point where only a one-state solution can provide a just peace (and not just a state of conflict management going under the misnomer of peace)."--- Anat Biletsky, Middle East Journal
Recent events have once more put the Israeli-Palestinian issue on the front page. After decades of failed peace initiatives, the prospect of reconciliation is in the air yet again as the principal actors maneuver to end the conflict and---the world hopes---bring peace to the region. A one-state solution is a way toward that peace and needs serious, renewed consideration.
The One-State Solution explains how Israeli settlements have encroached on the occupied territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to such an extent that any Palestinian state in those areas is unworkable. And it reveals the irreversible impact of Israel's settlement grid by summarizing its physical, demographic, financial, and political dimensions.
Virginia Tilley elucidates why we should assume that this grid will not be withdrawn---or its expansion reversed---by reviewing the role of the key political the Israeli government, the United States, the Arab states, and the European Union.
Finally, Tilley focuses on the daunting obstacles to a one-state solution---including major revision of the Zionist dream but also Palestinian and other regional resistance---and offers some ideas about how those obstacles might be addressed.
Virginia Tilley is Chief Research Specialist in the Democracy and Governance Division of the Human Resources Council in Cape Town, South Africa.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 24, 2005
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About the author
Virginia Q. Tilley
7 books2 followersVirginia Tilley (1953-) is an American political scientist specializing in the comparative study of ethnic and racial conflict. She is Professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in the US.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 2, 2022
Virginia Tilley distorts history, demonizes the Jewish people, and skips over fact.
Tilley ((a Hamas supporter) denies Israel's right to exist and calls for a 'unitary' Arab dominated 'Palestine' to replace Israel, in which Jews would be a helpless minority at the mercy and whim of HAMAS , as the Jews in Europe and the Arab countries (from which 800 000 Jews where expelled in 1948.) were at the mercy of their persecutors. If Tilley's demmand became a reality, Jews would wait, huddled in their ghettos, to be massacred by the Arabs.
YTilley and others who call for Israel's replacement by a 'unitary Palestine' know full well that this would lead to a second Holocaust of Israel's five million Jews.
How well did the 'unitary state ' work in Lebanon where hundreds of thousands of Christian Lebanese were massacred by the PLO and Syrians and went from being a majority in 1975 to a minority today? How well did the Animist and Christian Nilotic Blacks in Darfur and Southern Sudan fare in Sudan where millions have been massacred, or the Kurds in Iraq where 800 000 were butchered by Saddam Hussein?We all know how minorities fare in Arab countries and what makes anyone think the Jews in your suggested 'unitary Palestine' would fare any better, given the amount of hate in Palestinian society for Israel's Jews.
Why out of a massive landmass under Arab control , and a number of Arab states (today they number 22) it is regarded as such an injustice that a number of Arabs should be a minority in a Jewish State? where they enjoy full civil and political rights.
Jewish statelessness had led to the slaughter of 6 million Jews during the holocaust.
Tilley falsely refers to the nation-state as an anachronism, conveniently ignoring currents events around the world and recent history.
Those insulated academics who refer to the nation-state as an anachronism are ignoring the message of recent history, which has seen the birth (or rebirth) of a plethora of nation-sates, from the ruins of enforced multi-national artificial entities : Hence in the last 18 years we have seen the independence of nation-states including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Eritrea and East Timor.
The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more (especially after Hitler's Holocaust). So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards, Jews in the Land of Israel have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed, who would raise no hand in their defense, were robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs - as where the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias. Bedouin Arabs passed through Land of Israel at will-and robbed and killed Jews for profit. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Arab feudal lords in the Land of Israel organized pogroms precisely as the Tsar had organized pogroms.
In 1920 Jews where massacred by Arabs in Jerusalem, in 1921 in Jaffa and in 1929 in Hebron. Thousands of Jews where murdered in 1936 to 1939 in the Nazi inspired Arab Revolt. Since 1948 Arabs have launched wars against Israel to try to drive Jews into the sea and since Arafat launched the latest war in 2000, after rejecting a peace deal, thousands of Jewish men women and children have died in Israel by bomb, bullet and knife. Jews will never again be put into a position where they can be subjected to another Holocaust (particularly in the ancient Jewish homeland).
Tilley ((a Hamas supporter) denies Israel's right to exist and calls for a 'unitary' Arab dominated 'Palestine' to replace Israel, in which Jews would be a helpless minority at the mercy and whim of HAMAS , as the Jews in Europe and the Arab countries (from which 800 000 Jews where expelled in 1948.) were at the mercy of their persecutors. If Tilley's demmand became a reality, Jews would wait, huddled in their ghettos, to be massacred by the Arabs.
YTilley and others who call for Israel's replacement by a 'unitary Palestine' know full well that this would lead to a second Holocaust of Israel's five million Jews.
How well did the 'unitary state ' work in Lebanon where hundreds of thousands of Christian Lebanese were massacred by the PLO and Syrians and went from being a majority in 1975 to a minority today? How well did the Animist and Christian Nilotic Blacks in Darfur and Southern Sudan fare in Sudan where millions have been massacred, or the Kurds in Iraq where 800 000 were butchered by Saddam Hussein?We all know how minorities fare in Arab countries and what makes anyone think the Jews in your suggested 'unitary Palestine' would fare any better, given the amount of hate in Palestinian society for Israel's Jews.
Why out of a massive landmass under Arab control , and a number of Arab states (today they number 22) it is regarded as such an injustice that a number of Arabs should be a minority in a Jewish State? where they enjoy full civil and political rights.
Jewish statelessness had led to the slaughter of 6 million Jews during the holocaust.
Tilley falsely refers to the nation-state as an anachronism, conveniently ignoring currents events around the world and recent history.
Those insulated academics who refer to the nation-state as an anachronism are ignoring the message of recent history, which has seen the birth (or rebirth) of a plethora of nation-sates, from the ruins of enforced multi-national artificial entities : Hence in the last 18 years we have seen the independence of nation-states including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Eritrea and East Timor.
The meaning of Israel is clear. The Jew has experienced too much death, and a portion of the Jewish people decided that they would die quietly no more (especially after Hitler's Holocaust). So it is: and no argument, no clever political talk, no logic and no parading of right and wrong can change this fact. The Jews returned to Israel because it was their ancient land. From 1810 onwards, Jews in the Land of Israel have been murdered by Arabs. The pious Jews of Safed, who would raise no hand in their defense, were robbed and murdered and burned out again and again by Arabs - as where the Jews in Jerusalem and Tiberias. Bedouin Arabs passed through Land of Israel at will-and robbed and killed Jews for profit. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Arab feudal lords in the Land of Israel organized pogroms precisely as the Tsar had organized pogroms.
In 1920 Jews where massacred by Arabs in Jerusalem, in 1921 in Jaffa and in 1929 in Hebron. Thousands of Jews where murdered in 1936 to 1939 in the Nazi inspired Arab Revolt. Since 1948 Arabs have launched wars against Israel to try to drive Jews into the sea and since Arafat launched the latest war in 2000, after rejecting a peace deal, thousands of Jewish men women and children have died in Israel by bomb, bullet and knife. Jews will never again be put into a position where they can be subjected to another Holocaust (particularly in the ancient Jewish homeland).
January 5, 2009
Not sure how to review this book. As far as being a well-written book, it is not. It is repetitive and long winded. It is also subtly, but surely biased. Words and phrases like 'scathingly","his ilk", "ludicrous claim","ethnic cleansing" and others are consistently used when referring to Israel. I would have found the arguments in this piece more convincing if I were not constantly on the alert for this apparent bias.
I learned a few things I did not know about the conflict. The arguments for the impossibility of a two state solution hit home. However, this author could not convince me that a one state solution is a viable answer to this perplexing problem.
I am and have been critical of Israel and it's actions, especially over the last few years. However, the "solution" promoted here will never happen the way this author explains. She takes a very optimistic view of the behaviors of the citizens of this proposed new state.
It is definitely a book that provides a lot of food for thought.
I learned a few things I did not know about the conflict. The arguments for the impossibility of a two state solution hit home. However, this author could not convince me that a one state solution is a viable answer to this perplexing problem.
I am and have been critical of Israel and it's actions, especially over the last few years. However, the "solution" promoted here will never happen the way this author explains. She takes a very optimistic view of the behaviors of the citizens of this proposed new state.
It is definitely a book that provides a lot of food for thought.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews