Two State Solution?

by Walter E. Block (September 2024)

I don’t say that, nowadays, we hear nothing in the Middle East context from the cognoscenti other than “The Two State Solution.” But unless you pay full attention, you could easily be fooled into believing that.

However, it is a fact that Hamas has been actively operating under that system since 2007. Peace has not yet reigned based on that “solution.” So, instead of Hamas, in a new twist, the Palestinian Liberation Organization is now being put forth as Israel’s partner in that “solution.” Hamas should be kicked out, and with surgical precision the PLO should be installed in its place.

There is more wrong with this than you can shake a stick at. First of all, Abu Mazen, the head of the PLO, has had numerous offerings in the past to partner with Israel in this very type of “solution.” He has rebuffed these offerings on each and every such occasion. Oslo Accords, anyone?

Secondly, the PLO, too, is a terrorist organization. Hamas has no monopoly of this appellation in the Middle East. Have we sunk so low that we should continue down this garden path with groups such as these?

Third, the PLO lost a free and fair democratic election to Hamas, as certified by no less than the U.S. government under President Jimmy Carter. What happened to vitiate this method of choosing leaders? No electorate voted the PLO into office in Gaza nor anywhere else, for that matter. If the PLO is installed as the government of Gaza, it will be an imposition from above, not any result of the general will of the citizenry (not that this is any great shakes; remember, not only did Hamas come to power as a result of a democratic election, the same can be said for Hitler).

Fourth, just how well has this particular organization functioned in the territory over which it has in effect taken on the role of sovereign? Not too well (understatement of the year). The Arabs in Judea and Samaria have initiated violence against Israeli settlers on all too many numerous occasions. The latter have had to arm themselves in order to protect themselves and their families from these PLO controlled marauders.

We should want a far better partner for any two state “solution.” We should get someone like Mother Teresa. On second thought, better not do that. She would be assassinated within five minutes were she, or anyone like her, appointed head of the PLO headed Palestinian government which is brought forth as the partner of Israel in the TSS.

What the proponents of the TSS fail to incorporate in this “solution” they offer is the inveterate hate for Jews that motivates the Palestinians. They are willing to fulfill jobs in the Israeli economy, and patronize some of the best hospitals in the entire world when sick, but as the events of October 7, 2023 have shown, once again, they hate the Jews more than they love their own children. Not only were Harvard students dancing in the streets in appreciation of this slaughter of innocent Israeli women and children, this applied to the Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere as well.

This enmity had nothing to do with land claims, or Arabs supposedly being pushed out of their homes and vineyards by Hebrews, or the state of Israel, born, only, in 1948. The hatred long predates those events. There were pogroms long before in this troubled corner of the globe. The massacre in Hebron in 1928 is only one case in point.

No, the two state “solution” has been put paid. What, then, will finally bring peace to the Middle East? Step one will be when the Arabs finally learn to love their children more than they hate the Jews. We will know this has occurred when they stop using them as human shields. Step two will be when the Arabs finally learn that Israel is not a punching bag; when the IDF simply will not “take it any more” (these marauders are very slow learners)

If the government of Egypt had any decency, they would welcome their fellow Arabs into the Sinai Peninsula. Instead, at this prospect, they have taken the very opposite tack: they have threatened to abrogate their long-standing peace treaty with Israel if the latter allows any such incursion at all. It would have been accompanied by financial support for these refugees. So much for the fellowship between the two countries. Israel must think long and hard about just how much peace with Egypt (and other frontline states) is really worth.

Speaking of this country to the west of Israel, for many years it was in sole control of Gaza (a similar situation prevailed East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria vis a vis the nation to the east.) Why oh why, when these governments were in charge of those territories, were the Palestinians not given a state of their own? The hypocrisy of the Arab nations calling for a two state solution now that these areas are under Israeli supervision is overwhelming.

Let us pound yet one more nail into this TSS monstrosity. Is it not true that any group of people, without exception, has the right to form a government of their own devising, as long as it is limited to territory they properly control? Yes, this cannot be denied. At least, it is compatible with the principles of anarcho-capitalism. There, the goal is not for one or two or the roughly 250 countries that now exist, but for just under 8 billion of them, one for each of us. Everyone should be sovereign, in this view. And, surely, the Palestinians are the proper owners of some terrain.

However, there is a flaw in this otherwise not unreasonable if rather idealistic goal: it would be illegitimate for anyone to set up a government the purpose of which is to initiate violence against innocent people. In this regard, the Palestinians more than qualify. Their principle is as follows:

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him…” (Hamas Covenant 1988).

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul stated as follows: “If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day, right, right?” She later improperly apologized for this very insightful comment, made in support of Israel’s current attempt to conquer Hamas, but it was very apropos. Well, Hamas did indeed “attack” Israel. In justice, there should be no independent Gazan country “the next day, right, right?” If Canada did to the US what Hamas did to Israel, Canada would cease to exist as a separate country. That should be the fate of Gaza, if justice is to be done.

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Walter E. Block is Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, and senior fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD in economics at Columbia University in 1972. He has taught at Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, Baruch CUNY, Holy Cross and the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of more than 600 refereed articles in professional journals, three dozen books, and thousands of op eds (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and numerous others). He lectures widely on college campuses, delivers seminars around the world and appears regularly on television and radio shows. He is the Schlarbaum Laureate, Mises Institute, 2011; and has won the Loyola University Research Award (2005, 2008) and the Mises Institute’s Rothbard Medal of Freedom, 2005; and the Dux Academicus award, Loyola University, 2007. Prof. Block counts among his friends Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard. He was converted to libertarianism by Ayn Rand. Block is old enough to have played chess with Friedrich Hayek and once met Ludwig von Mises, and shook his hand. Block has never washed that hand since. So, if you shake his hand (it’s pretty dirty, but what the heck) you channel Mises.

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