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

This is a dispassionate examination of the viability of the two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the politics of Israel, Palestine and the United States, and includes case studies from South Africa in Namibia and the Irish claim to Northern Ireland. The results of Israeli elections from 2001 to 2009 are analysed (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 chapter, the American-Israeli alliance and American politics. The conclusion draws lessons from the case studies and the analysis.