The understated solution.

• Author: Wales, Zachary
• Position: One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse - Book review

One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse Ali Abunimah (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), 240 pages.

Taking sides is endemic to the discourse on Israel-Palestine. A word like "complex" may mask basic realities, "balance" may excuse omission, and "identity" awards the legitimacy to enter a debate that is often foreclosed before it begins. Controversy is inevitable. The central problem that confronts a work like Ali Abunimah's One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestine Impasse is that it is required to break through this pathology before being critically received and understood.

One Country is an imperfect, opinionated and honest argument for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its essence goes something like this: Were the conflict balanced, a balanced argument would apply; had there ever been a genuine will for peace, this author would be a pacifist; were the historic persecution of Jews in Europe not so obscene, a mere "pro-Palestinian" argument would suffice. The list could go on. But if there is any reason why one should engage with Abunimah's first book--the Palestinian-American author has written in numerous mainstream publications, appears frequently on major networks, and is a co-founder of the online magazine, Electronic Intifada--it is because One Country is not beholden to the rules and prescriptions that monopolize Palestinian and Israeli discourse.

Abunimah advocates the idea that a single, federated state for Israelis and Palestinians is not only desirable, but inevitable. Of course, the one-state solution--as opposed to the dominant two-state alternative--to the Israel-Palestine impasse is nothing new. It has been rejected by some Zionists as at best impossible, and at worst anti-Semitic, based on the theory that, through sheer demographics, integration will result in the destruction of the Jewish State. For Zionism's critics, one-state emphasizes the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the arguably dysfunctional nature of forced partition. One Country takes a step beyond these notions, calling for the protection of both the Jewish state and the rights of Palestinian refugees. However, Abunimah's proposals and argumentation are as likely to find disfavor among those that are pro-Israeli as they may among those that are pro-Palestinian. Were there a "typical" disciple of Abunimah's theory, she would probably be a Jew who defended Palestinians as a part of the "Jewish cause," rather than--but not to exclude--the more predictable Palestinian defending the "Palestinian cause." In this sense, the book's weakness is synonymous with its utmost strength: It may only be ready for those who are ready for it.

For practical purposes, the centerpiece of One Country is found in its fourth chapter, entitled, "A United, Democratic State in Palestine-Israel." Although this notion has been repeatedly called for by Palestinians and Jews alike, it has been crippled throughout history by the reigning absolutist demands of both Palestinian and Israeli leaders. As Abunimah remarks, the dominant view of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the 1960s espoused adamant anti-colonial liberation rhetoric that promoted armed struggle without a "strategy to appeal directly to, or build alliances with, segments of the Israeli population." (1) It was a view that precluded a "persuasive vision for a democratic state that could present a credible challenge to Zionism's insistence on the necessity of a Jewish monopoly" (2) This ethos can be contrasted with the strident colonial expressions of Israel's leadership. (3)

To counter this, Abunimah lays out some preliminary considerations of what a single Israel-Palestine state might look like, grounded in the understanding that "the majority of Israelis and Palestinians now understand that the other community is here to stay." (4) The solution is principally rooted in the Universal...