Editing One-state solution (section)

==Arguments for and against==
===In favor===
Today, the proponents for the one-state solution include Palestinian author [[Ali Abunimah]], Palestinian writer and political scientist Abdalhadi Alijla, Palestinian-American producer [[Jamal Dajani]], Palestinian lawyer [[Michael Tarazi]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/sover/emerg/2004/1004onetwo.htm |title=Two Peoples, One State - Nations & States - Global Policy Forum |access-date=17 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020020059/http://www.globalpolicy.org///nations/sovereign/sover/emerg/2004/1004onetwo.htm |archive-date=20 October 2008}}</ref> American-Israeli anthropologist [[Jeff Halper]], Israeli writer Dan Gavron,<ref>{{cite web |last=Hirschberg |first=Peter |date=16 December 2003 |title=One state awakening |url=http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID%3D4693 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20080307144349/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=4693 |archive-date=7 March 2008 |access-date=17 October 2009}}</ref> Lebanese-American academic [[Saree Makdisi]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-makdisi11-2008may11,0,7862060.story |work=Los Angeles Times |title=Forget the two-state solution |first=Saree |last=Makdisi |date=11 May 2008 |access-date=5 May 2010}}</ref> and Israeli journalist [[Gideon Levy]].<ref name=whos-afraid>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.571863 |author=Gideon Levy |title=Who's afraid of a binational state? |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |date=2 February 2014 |access-date=17 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="Al Gathafi 2003">{{Cite web |last=Al Gathafi |first=Muammar |title=White Book (ISRATIN) |year=2003 |url=http://www.algathafi.org/html-english/cat_03_03.htm |access-date=2008-04-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415223111/http://www.algathafi.org/html-english/cat_03_03.htm |archive-date=2008-04-15 }}</ref> In an [[op-ed]] for ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 2004, Tarazi opined that the expansion of the Israeli settler movement, especially in the West Bank, was a rationale for bi-nationalism and the increased infeasibility of the two-state alternative: <blockquote>"Support for one state is hardly a radical idea; it is simply the recognition of the uncomfortable reality that Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories already function as a single state. They share the same aquifers, the same highway network, the same electricity grid and the same international borders... The one-state solution... neither destroys the Jewish character of the Holy Land nor negates the Jewish historical and religious attachment (although it would destroy the superior status of Jews in that state). Rather, it affirms that the Holy Land has an equal Christian and Muslim character. For those who believe in equality, this is a good thing."<ref name=tarazi>{{cite news |url =https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/04/opinion/04tarazi.html |author=Michael Tarazi |title=Two Peoples, One State|work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=25 January 2011 |date=4 October 2004}}</ref></blockquote> Advocates of this solution push for a secular and democratic state while still maintaining a Jewish presence and culture in the region.<ref name="haifa2007">{{cite web|url=http://www.mada-research.org/UserFiles/file/haifaenglish.pdf |title=Haifa Declaration |year=2007 |publisher=Arab Center for Applied Social Research |access-date=25 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303181624/http://www.mada-research.org/UserFiles/file/haifaenglish.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2011 }}</ref> They concede that this alternative will erode the dream of Jewish supremacy in terms of governance in the long run.<ref name="haifa2007" />

[[Hamas]] has at times ruled out a two-state solution, and at other times endorsed the possibility of a two-state solution.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Hamas: We Won't Accept Two-state Solution |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/2009-05-09/ty-article/hamas-we-wont-accept-two-state-solution/0000017f-ece9-dc91-a17f-fcedea620000 |access-date=2023-05-21}}</ref><ref name="offer 2009">{{cite news |author=Segev |first=Yoav |date=22 September 2009 |title=Haniyeh to UN chief: Hamas accepts Palestinian state in '67 borders |newspaper=Haaretz |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/haniyeh-to-un-chief-hamas-accepts-palestinian-state-in-67-borders-1.7460 |access-date=25 February 2012}}</ref> Hamas co-founder [[Mahmoud Al-Zahar]] has been cited saying he "did not rule out the possibility of having Jews, Muslims and Christians living under the sovereignty of an Islamic state."<ref name="xinhuanet.com">{{cite web|title=Hamas leader urges int'l community to respect Palestinian people's choice|publisher=[[Xinhua]]|date=2 April 2006|url=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/02/content_4373348.htm|access-date=17 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805082725/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/02/content_4373348.htm|archive-date=5 August 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Palestinian Islamic Jihad]], for its part, rejects a two-state solution; its leader Khalid al-Batsh stated that "The idea cannot be accepted and we believe that the entire Palestine is Arab and Islamic land and belongs to the Palestinian nation."<ref>[http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=52405 "Islamic Jihad Leader Rejects Two-State Solution to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,"] IMRA (16 May 2011). Retrieved 2013-12-17.</ref>

In 2003, Libyan leader [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]] proposed a one-state solution known as the [[Isratin|''Isratin'' proposal]].<ref name="isratin2009" /> Iranian supreme leader [[Ali Khamenei]] and former president [[Ebrahim Raisi]] both expressed their support for a one-state solution, in which Palestine would become the sole legitimate government of Israel.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-10-02 |title=Iran rejects two-state solution for Palestine |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/10/2/iran-rejects-two-state-solution-for-palestine |website=Al Jazeera}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-11-12 |title=Iran opposes two-state solution for Palestine, calls for 'democratic' solution |url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231112-iran-opposes-two-state-solution-for-palestine-calls-for-democratic-solution/ |access-date=2024-04-14 |work=[[Middle East Monitor]]}}</ref>

====The left====
Since 1999, interest has been renewed in bi-nationalism or a unitary democratic state. That year, Palestinian activist [[Edward Said]] wrote, "[A]fter 50 years of Israeli history, classic Zionism has provided no solution to the Palestinian presence. I therefore see no other way than to begin now to speak about sharing the land that has thrust us together, sharing it in a truly democratic way with equal rights for all citizens."<ref name="Al-Ahram Weekly">[[Edward Said]], "Truth and Reconciliation," ''Al-Ahram Weekly'', 14 January 1999</ref>

In October 2003, New York University scholar [[Tony Judt]] broke ground in his article, "Israel: The Alternative" in the ''[[New York Review of Books]]'', in which he argued that Israel is an "anachronism" in sustaining an ethnic identity for the state and that the two-state solution is fundamentally doomed and unworkable.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Judt |first=Tony |date=23 October 2003 |title=Israel: The Alternative |language=en |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/10/23/israel-the-alternative/ |access-date=2023-05-21 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> The Judt article engendered considerable debate in the UK and the US, and ''The New York Review of Books'' received more than 1,000 letters per week about the essay. A month later, political scientist [[Virginia Tilley]] published "The One-State Solution" in the ''[[London Review of Books]]'' (followed by a book with the same title in 2005), arguing that West Bank settlements had made a two-state solution impossible and that the international community must accept a one-state solution as the ''de facto'' reality.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Tilley |first=Virginia |author-link=Virginia Tilley |date=6 November 2003 |title=The One-State Solution |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n21/virginia-tilley/the-one-state-solution |journal=London Review of Books |volume=25 |issue=21 |access-date=16 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Virginia Tilley |url=http://www.press.umich.edu/183676/one_state_solution |title=The One-State Solution |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-03449-9 |date=2005}}</ref>

Leftist journalists from Israel, such as [[Haim Hanegbi]] and Daniel Gavron, have called for the public to "face the facts" and accept the binational solution. On the Palestinian side, similar voices have been raised. Then-Israeli prime minister [[Ehud Olmert]] argued, in a 2007 interview with the Israeli daily ''[[Haaretz]]'', that without a two-state agreement Israel would face "a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights" in which case "Israel [would be] finished".<ref name="haaretz2007" />

[[John Mearsheimer]], co-director of the Programme on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, says the binational solution has become inevitable. He further argued that by allowing Israel's settlements to prevent the formation of a Palestinian state, the United States has helped Israel commit "national suicide" since Palestinians will be the majority group in the binational state.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews%3D54507 |title=Dead Peace Process Could be "National Suicide" for Israel - IPS ipsnews.net |access-date=6 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217205009/http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54507 |archive-date=17 February 2011 }}</ref>

[[Rashid Khalidi]] wrote in 2011 that the one-state solution was already a reality, in that "there is only one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, in which there are two or three levels of citizenship or non-citizenship within the borders of that one state that exerts total control." Khalidi further argued that the "peace process" had been extinguished by ongoing Israeli settlement construction, and anyone who still believed it could result in an equitable two-state solution should have their "head examined".<ref>[http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/leading-palestinian-intellectual-we-already-have-a-one-state-solution-1.399629 Leading Palestinian intellectual: We already have a one-state solution] (''Haaretz'', 5 Dec. 2011)</ref>

In 2013, professor [[Ian Lustick]] wrote in ''The New York Times'' that the "fantasy" of a two-state solution prevented people from working on solutions that might really work. Lustick argued that people who assume Israel will persist as a Zionist project should consider how quickly the Soviet, Pahlavi Iranian, apartheid South African, Baathist Iraqi and Yugoslavian states unraveled. Lustick concludes that while it may not arise without "painful stalemates", a one-state solution may be a way to eventual Palestinian independence.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lustick |first=Ian S. |date=2013-09-14 |title=Two-State Illusion |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/opinion/sunday/two-state-illusion.html |url-status=live |url-access=registration |access-date=2023-05-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160122164104/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/opinion/sunday/two-state-illusion.html |archive-date=22 January 2016 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

====The Israeli right====
{{Main|Proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank}}
[[File:Restricted space in the West Bank, Area C.png|thumb|200px|[[Area C (West Bank)|Area C]] of the West Bank, controlled by Israel, in blue and red, December 2011]]
In recent years, some politicians and political commentators representing the right wing of Israeli politics have advocated annexing the [[West Bank]], and granting the West Bank's Palestinian population Israeli citizenship while maintaining Israel's current status as a [[Jewish state]] with [[Arab citizens of Israel|recognized minorities]]. Proposals from the Israeli right for a one-state solution tend to avoid advocating the annexation of the [[Gaza Strip]], due to its large and generally hostile Palestinian population and its status as a self-governing territory without any Israeli settlements or permanent military presence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glick |first=Caroline B. |title=The Israeli solution: a one-state plan for peace in the Middle East |date=2014 |publisher=Crown forum |isbn=978-0-385-34806-5 |location=New York |pages=133–135}}</ref> Some Israeli politicians, including former defense minister [[Moshe Arens]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Strenger|first=Carlo|title=Strenger than Fiction / Israel should consider a one-state solution|url=http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/strenger-than-fiction-israel-should-consider-a-one-state-solution-1.296976|access-date=5 February 2014|newspaper=Haaretz|date=18 June 2010}}</ref> and former President [[Reuven Rivlin]]<ref>{{cite news |last=Ahren |first=Raphael |title=The newly confident Israeli proponents of a one-state solution|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-hebron-conference-proponents-of-the-one-state-solution-show-their-growing-confidence/|access-date=5 February 2014|newspaper=[[The Times of Israel]] |date=16 July 2012}}</ref> and [[Uri Ariel]]<ref>{{cite news |title=New housing minister rejects settlement freeze as 'dreadful' idea |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-housing-minister-rejects-settlement-freeze-as-dreadful-idea/ |newspaper=Times Of Israel |date=17 March 2013 |access-date=19 March 2013}}</ref> have voiced support for a one-state solution, rather than divide the [[West Bank]] in a two-state solution.<ref name=haaretz2010 >{{cite journal|last=Zrahiya |first=Zvi |title=Israel official: Accepting Palestinians into Israel better than two states |journal=TheMarker |year=2010 |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-official-accepting-palestinians-into-israel-better-than-two-states-1.287421 |access-date=12 February 2011}}</ref> 

In 2013, [[Likud]] MK [[Tzipi Hotovely]] argued that Jordan was originally created as the Arab state in the British Mandate of Palestine and that Israel should annex the West Bank as a historic part of the Land of Israel.<ref>{{cite web|last=Harkov |first=Lahav |url=http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Hotovely-laments-Likud-schizophrenia-on-two-states-324563 |title=Hotovely laments Likud 'schizophrenia' on two states |website=The Jerusalem Post |date=2013-08-28 |access-date=2016-04-12}}</ref> [[Naftali Bennett]], Prime Minister of Israel, included in many [[Likud]]-led coalitions, argues for the annexation of Zone C of the [[West Bank]]. Zone C, agreed upon as part of the [[Oslo Accords]], comprises about 60% of West Bank land and is currently under Israeli military control.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bennett |first=Naftali |date=5 November 2014 |title=for Israel Two-State is No Solution |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/naftali-bennett-for-israel-two-state-is-no-solution.html?_r=0 |url-status=live |access-date=2016-04-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129073924/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/naftali-bennett-for-israel-two-state-is-no-solution.html?_r=0 |archive-date=29 January 2021}}</ref>

In the 2014 book ''The Israeli Solution'', ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' columnist [[Caroline Glick]] challenged the census statistics provided by the [[Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics]] (PCBS) and argued that the bureau had vastly over-inflated the Palestinian population of the West Bank by 1.34 million and that PCBS statistics and predictions are unreliable. According to a [[Begin–Sadat Center for Strategic Studies]] (BESA) study,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/MSPS65.pdf |title=The Million Person Gap: The Arab Population in the West Bank and Gaza |access-date=23 December 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303172640/http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/MSPS65.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref> the 2004 Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza stood at 2.5 million and not the 3.8 million claimed by the Palestinians. According to Glick, the 1997 PCBS survey, used as the basis for later studies, inflated numbers by including over three hundred thousand Palestinians living abroad and by double-counting over two hundred thousand Jerusalem Arabs already included in Israel's population survey. Further, Glick says later PCBS surveys reflect the predictions of the 1997 PCBS survey, reporting unrealized birth forecasts, including assumptions of large Palestinian immigration that never occurred.

Based on this study, Glick argued that annexation of the West Bank would only add 1.4 million Palestinians to the population of Israel. She argued that a one-state solution with a Jewish majority and a political system rooted in Jewish values was the best way to guarantee the protection of democratic values and the rights of all minorities.<ref>Glick, Caroline. ''The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East''. New York: Crown Forum, 2014. pp. 124–33, 155–63.</ref>

The demographic statistics from the PCBS are backed by [[Arnon Soffer]] and quite similar to official Israeli figures. [[Sergio DellaPergola]] gives a figure of 5,698,500 Arabs living in Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2015, while the core Jewish population stood at 6,103,200.<ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Elhanan |date=5 January 2015 |title=Right-wing annexation drive fueled by false demographics, experts say |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/right-wing-annexation-drive-fueled-by-false-demographics-experts-say/ |work=[[Times of Israel]]}}</ref>

===Against===
Critics{{which|date=March 2022}} argue that it would make Israeli Jews an ethnic minority<ref>a b Shenhav, 2006, p. 191.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/02/26/3091851/harvard-to-host-one-state-solution-confab |title=Harvard hosting confab on one-state solution &#124; JTA - Jewish & Israel News |access-date=18 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301091251/http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/02/26/3091851/harvard-to-host-one-state-solution-confab |archive-date=1 March 2012}}</ref> in the only Jewish country.{{clarify|reason=The significance of this needs to be explained|date=April 2024}} The high [[total fertility rate]] among Palestinians accompanied by a return of [[Palestinian refugees]], would quickly render Jews a minority, according to [[Sergio DellaPergola]], an Israeli demographer and statistician.<ref>{{cite web|last=[[Sergio DellaPergola]] |title=Demography in Israel/Palestine: Trends, Prospects, Policy Implications |url=http://fc.retecivica.milano.it/rcmweb/rssweb/Israele/Aliyah |publisher=[[Shalom Hartman Institute]] |access-date=22 April 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422221118/http://fc.retecivica.milano.it/rcmweb/rssweb/Israele/Aliyah%20e%20diaspora/Demografia%20e%20sviluppo/S03D0F4A4.0/Demography%20in%20IsraelPalesti.pdf |archive-date=22 April 2016}}{{Dubious |Dubious|date=September 2016}}</ref>

Critics{{which|date=March 2022}} have also argued that Jews, like any other nation, have the right to [[self-determination]], and that due to still existing [[antisemitism]], there is a need for a Jewish national home.<ref>{{cite web|author=Eli E. Hertz |url=http://www.mythsandfacts.com/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070102043649/http://www.mythsandfacts.com/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2 January 2007 |title=Mandate For Palestine - The Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights |publisher=Mythsandfacts.com |access-date=2016-04-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jcpa.org/text/Israel60_Gavison.pdf |title=The Right of Jews to Statehood |author=Prof. Ruth Gavison |website=Jcpa.org |access-date=2016-04-12}}</ref>

The [[Reut Institute]] expands on these concerns of many Israeli Jews and says that a one-state scenario without any institutional safeguards would negate Israel's status as a homeland for the Jewish people.<ref name=reut2004/> When proposed as a political solution by non-Israelis, the assumption is that the idea is probably being put forward by those who are politically motivated to harm Israel and, by extension, Israeli Jews.<ref name=reut2004/> They argue that the absorption of millions of Palestinians, along with a right of return for Palestinian refugees, and the generally high birthrate among Palestinians would quickly render Jews an ethnic minority and eliminate their rights to self-determination.<ref name=reut2004/>

Israeli historian and politician [[Shlomo Ben-Ami]], who served as Foreign Minister of Israel, dismissed the one-state solution as "[[ivory tower]] nonsense" and said that it creates a "South Africa situation without a South Africa solution."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tarnopolsky |first=Noga |date=3 August 2020 |title=Peter Beinart ignores an inconvenient truth: Israelis and Palestinians haven't given up on a two-state solution |url=https://www.jta.org/2020/08/03/opinion/peter-beinart-ignores-an-inconvenient-truth-israelis-and-palestinians-havent-given-up-on-a-two-state-solution}}</ref>

In an interview with [[Jeffrey Goldberg]], [[Hussein Ibish]] claimed that it is not realistic for Israel to be compelled to accept a binational solution with full right of return for refugees through international pressure or sanctions. According to Ibish, if a one state solution was to happen, it would come as a result of the status quo continuing, and the result would be a protracted civil war, with each intifada more violent than the last, and the conflict growing more and more religious in nature. Ibish speculated that in such a scenario, it could even go beyond an ethno-national war between Israelis and Palestinians into a religious war between Jews and Muslims, with Israeli Jews ending up under siege and relying on their nuclear weapons for protection.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2009/11/hussein-ibish-on-the-fantasy-world-of-one-staters/29425/|title=Hussein Ibish on the Fantasy World of One-Staters|first=Jeffrey|last=Goldberg|website=[[The Atlantic]]|date=3 November 2009}}</ref>

====Academia====
[[New Historian]] [[Benny Morris]] has argued that the one-state solution is not viable because of Arab unwillingness to accept a Jewish national presence in the Middle East.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldberg |first=Jeffrey |date=2009-05-21 |title=No Common Ground |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/books/review/Goldberg-t.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |access-date=2023-05-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403123017/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/books/review/Goldberg-t.html |archive-date=3 April 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Morris argues any such state would be an authoritarian, fundamentalist state with a persecuted Jewish minority, citing the racism and persecution minorities face throughout the Arab and Muslim world, and writing that "Western liberals [...] refuse to recognize that peoples, for good historical, cultural, and social reasons are different and behave differently in similar or identical sets of circumstances." He notes the differences between Israeli Jewish society, which remains largely Westernized and secular, and Palestinian society, which according to Morris is increasingly Islamic and fundamentalist. He pointed to [[Hamas]]' 2007 takeover of Gaza, during which [[Fatah]] prisoners were shot in the knees and thrown off buildings, and the regular [[honor killing]]s of women that permeate Palestinian and Israeli-Arab society, as evidence that Palestinian Muslims have no respect for Western values. He thus claimed that "the mindset and basic values of Israeli Jewish society and Palestinian Muslim society are so different and mutually exclusive as to render a vision of binational statehood tenable only in the most disconnected and unrealistic of minds."

According to Morris, the goal of a "secular democratic Palestine" was invented to appeal to Westerners, and while a few supporters of the one-state solution may honestly believe in such an outcome, the realities of Palestinian society mean that "the phrase objectively serves merely as camouflage for the goal of a Muslim Arab–dominated polity to replace Israel." Morris argued that should a binational state ever emerge, many Israeli Jews would likely emigrate to escape the "stifling darkness, intolerance, authoritarianism, and insularity of the Arab world and its treatment of minority populations", with only those incapable of finding new host countries to resettle in and Ultra-Orthodox Jews remaining behind.<ref name=morris>Morris, Benny: ''One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict''</ref>

Some argue that Jews would face the threat of [[genocide]]. Writing on ''[[Arutz Sheva]]'', [[Steven Plaut]] referred to the one-state solution as the "[[Rwandan genocide|Rwanda]] Solution", and wrote that the implementation of a one-state solution in which a Palestinian majority would rule over a Jewish minority would eventually lead to a "new [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]]".<ref>{{cite web | first=Steven | last=Plaut | url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/2614#.Ujd8qcaUQUg | title=One State Solution vs Two-State Solution? | publisher=[[Arutz Sheva]] | date=3 March 2008 | accessdate=2013-12-17}}</ref> Morris argued that while the Palestinians would have few moral inhibitions over the destruction of Israeli-Jewish society through mass murder or expulsion, fear of international intervention would probably stymie such an outcome.<ref name=morris/>

Some critics{{which|date=March 2022}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/issue/two-state-solution |title=A Two-State Solution &#124; Israel Policy Forum |access-date=18 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120228194607/http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/issue/two-state-solution |archive-date=28 February 2012}}</ref> argue that unification cannot happen without damaging or destroying Israel's democracy. The vast majority of Israeli Jews as well as Israeli [[Druze]], some Israeli [[Bedouin]], many Israeli Christian Arabs and even some non-Bedouin Israeli Muslim Arabs fear the consequences of amalgamation with the mostly Muslim Palestinian population in the occupied territories, which they perceive as more religious and conservative. (All Israeli Druze men and small numbers of Bedouin men serve in the [[Israel Defense Forces]] and there are sometimes rifts between these groups and Palestinians).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/17/israel |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=Tales of Tel Aviv |first=Linda |last=Grant |date=17 March 2004 |access-date=5 May 2010}}</ref> {{Failed verification|date=September 2017}} One poll found that, in a future Palestinian state, 23% of Palestinians want civil law only, 35% want both Islamic and civil law, and 38% want Islamic law only.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcrd-pal.org/opinion_polls.php?pid%3D5 |title=Palestinian Center for Research & Cultural Dialogue |access-date=4 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727165917/http://www.pcrd-pal.org/opinion_polls.php?pid=5 |archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref> This negative view of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza prompts some critics to argue that the existing level of rights and equality for all Israeli citizens would be put in jeopardy with unification.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3329865,00.html |title=One-state solution a pipedream |website=Ynetnews |date=20 June 1995 |access-date=12 April 2016|last1=Hanania |first1=Ray }}</ref> Benny Morris echoes these claims, arguing that Palestinian Muslims, who would become the ruling majority in any such state, are deeply religious and do not have any tradition of democratic governance.

In response to the common argument given by proponents of the one state solution that Israel's settlements have become so entrenched in the West Bank that a Palestinian state is effectively impossible, scholars such as [[Norman Finkelstein]] and [[Noam Chomsky]] have countered that it is far more unrealistic to expect Israel to accept a one-state solution that would spell the end of Zionism than it is to expect it to dismantle some settlements. [[Nathan Thrall]] has argued that Israel could implement a unilateral withdrawal at any time of its choosing and that the facts on the ground suggest that a single state is a remote possibility, writing that:
{{Blockquote|Israelis and Palestinians are now farther from a single state than they have been at any time since the occupation began in 1967. Walls and fences separate Israel from Gaza and more than 90% of the West Bank. Palestinians have a quasi-state in the occupied territories, with its own parliament, courts, intelligence services and foreign ministry. Israelis no longer shop in Nablus and Gaza the way they did before the Oslo accords. Palestinians no longer travel freely to Tel Aviv. And the supposed reason that partition is often claimed to be impossible – the difficulty of a probable relocation of more than 150,000 settlers – is grossly overstated: in the 1990s, Israel absorbed several times as many Russian immigrants, many of them far more difficult to integrate than settlers, who already have Israeli jobs, fully formed networks of family support and a command of Hebrew.<ref>{{cite news|last=Thrall|first=Nathan|title=Israel-Palestine: the real reason there's still no peace|date=16 May 2017 |work=The Guardian|issn=0261-3077|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/16/the-real-reason-the-israel-palestine-peace-process-always-fails|access-date=22 December 2019}}</ref>}}

[[Shaul Arieli]] has likewise argued that the settlement enterprise has failed to create the appropriate conditions to prevent a contiguous Palestinian state or to implement the annexation of the West Bank. He has noted that the settlers comprise only 13.5% of the West Bank's population and occupy 4% of its land, and that the settlement enterprise has failed to build up a viable local economic infrastructure. He noted that only about 400 settler households were engaged in agriculture, with the amount of settler-owned farmland comprising only 1.5% of the West Bank. In addition, he wrote that there are only two significant industrial zones in the West Bank settlements, with the vast majority of workers there Palestinian, and that the vast majority of settlers live near the border, in areas that can be annexed by Israel with relative ease in territorial exchanges, while still allowing for the formation of a viable Palestinian state. According to Arieli, 62% of the settler workforce commutes over the Green Line into Israel proper for work while another 25% works in the heavily subsidized education system of the settlements, with only a small percent working in agriculture and industry. About half of the settlements have populations fewer than 1,000 and only 15 have populations greater than 5,000. According to Arieli, the settlement movement has failed to create facts on the ground precluding an Israeli withdrawal, and it is possible to implement a land exchange that would see about 80% of the settlers stay in place, necessitating the evacuation of only about 30,000 settler households, in order to establish a viable and contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank.<ref>{{cite news|title=Look at the figures: Israel's settlement enterprise has failed|newspaper=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-the-settlement-enterprise-has-failed-1.5402018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/some-inconvenient-facts-for-one-state-advocates/|title = Some inconvenient facts for one-state advocates}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Arieli |first=Shaul |date=26 February 2018 |title=The Israeli Settlement Movement Is Failing |url=https://forward.com/community/395245/the-israeli-settlement-movement-is-failing/ |website=The Forward}}</ref>

This sentiment has been echoed by Shany Mor, who argued that in 2020, the geographical distribution of settlers in the West Bank had not materially changed since 1993, and that a two-state solution is actually more feasible now than it was in the past due to the disentanglement of the Israeli and Palestinian economies in the 1990s. According to Mor, nearly all the population growth in the settlements between 2005 and 2020 was concentrated in the Haredi settlements of [[Beitar Illit]] and [[Modi'in Illit]], due to their high birth rates.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mor |first=Shany |date=17 September 2020 |title=Peter Beinart's Grotesque Utopia |url=https://en.idi.org.il/articles/32533 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=en.idi.org.il |language=he}}</ref>

====Journalists====
One major argument against the one-state solution is that it would endanger the safety of the Jewish minority, because it would require assimilation with what critics fear would be an extremely hostile Muslim ruling majority.<ref name=reut2004/> In particular, [[Jeffrey Goldberg]] points to a 2000 ''[[Haaretz]]'' interview with [[Edward Said]], whom he describes as "one of the intellectual fathers of one-statism". When asked whether he thought a Jewish minority would be treated fairly in a binational state, Said replied that "it worries me a great deal. The question of what is going to be the fate of the Jews is very difficult for me. I really don't know."<ref name=Goldberg/>

Imagining what might ensue with unification, some critics<ref>{{cite web |title=A Destructive "Solution" |work=Harvard Political Review |date=28 February 2012 |url=http://hpronline.org/harvard/a-destructive-solution/ |access-date=12 April 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120303090836/http://hpronline.org/harvard/a-destructive-solution/ |archive-date=3 March 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> of the one-state model believe that rather than ending the Arab–Israeli conflict, it would result in large-scale ethnic violence and possibly civil war, pointing to violence during the British Mandate period, such as in [[1920 Nebi Musa riots|1920]], [[Jaffa riots|1921]], [[1929 Palestine riots|1929]], and [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|1936–39]] as examples. In this view, violence between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews is inevitable and can only be forestalled by partition. These critics also cite the 1937 [[Peel Commission]], which recommended partition as the only means of ending the conflict.<ref>{{cite news|title=Partition of Palestine|work=The Guardian|date=8 July 1937 |location=London |url= https://www.theguardian.com/israel/Story/0,,980135,00.html |access-date=5 May 2010}}</ref>{{original research inline|date=March 2022}} Critics also cite bi-national arrangements in [[Yugoslavia]], [[Lebanon]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]], [[Cyprus]], and [[Pakistan]], which failed and resulted in further internal conflicts. Similar criticisms appear in ''The Case for Peace''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dershowitz |first=Alan Morton |author-link=Alan Dershowitz |date=2006-04-01 |title=The case for peace: how the Arab-Israeli conflict can be resolved |journal=Choice Reviews Online |volume=43 |issue=8 |pages=43–4915–43-4915 |doi=10.5860/choice.43-4915 |doi-broken-date=1 February 2025 |issn=0009-4978}}</ref>

Left-wing Israeli journalist [[Amos Elon]] argued that while Israel's settlement policy was pushing things in the direction of a one-state solution, should it ever come to pass, "the end result is more likely to resemble [[Zimbabwe]] than post-apartheid South Africa".<ref>{{cite magazine |title= An Alternative Future: An Exchange by Amos Elon |magazine=The New York Review of Books |date=4 December 2003 |last1=Bartov |first1=Omer |last2=Walzer |first2=Michael |last3=Foxman |first3=Abraham H. |last4=Judt |first4=Tony |last5=Elon |first5=Amos |url= http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/dec/04/an-alternative-future-an-exchange/?pagination=false|access-date=2016-04-12}}</ref> Echoing these sentiments, Palestinian-American journalist [[Ray Hanania]] wrote that the idea of a single state where Jews, Muslims, and Christians can live side by side is "fundamentally flawed." In addition to the fact that Israel would not support it, Hanania noted that the Arab and Muslim world don't practice it, writing "Exactly where do Jews and Christians live in the Islamic World today side-by-side with equality? We don't even live side-by-side with equality in the Palestinian Diaspora."<ref>{{Cite news |last= Hanania |first=Ray |title=One-state solution a pipedream |date= 19 November 2006 |website= Ynetnews |url= https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3329865,00.html}}</ref>

On the aftermath of any hypothetical implementation of a one-state solution, [[Gershom Gorenberg]] wrote: "Palestinians will demand the return of property lost in 1948 and perhaps the rebuilding of destroyed villages. Except for the drawing of borders, virtually every question that bedevils Israeli–Palestinian peace negotiations will become a domestic problem setting the new political entity aflame.... Two nationalities who have desperately sought a political frame for cultural and social independence would wrestle over control of language, art, street names, and schools." Gorenberg wrote that in the best case, the new state would be paralyzed by endless arguments, and in the worst case, constant disagreements would erupt into violence.<ref name=Goldberg/>

Gorenberg wrote that in addition to many of the problems with the one-state solution described above, the hypothetical state would collapse economically, as the Israeli Jewish intelligentsia would in all likelihood emigrate, writing that "financing development in majority-Palestinian areas and bringing Palestinians into Israel's social welfare network would require Jews to pay higher taxes or receive fewer services. But the engine of the Israeli economy is high-tech, an entirely portable industry. Both individuals and companies will leave." As a result, the new binational state would be financially crippled.<ref name="Goldberg">{{Cite news |last=Goldberg |first=Jeffrey |date=2012-02-28 |title=Anti-Israel One-State Plan Gets Harvard Outlet: Jeffrey Goldberg |language=en |work=Bloomberg.com |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2012-02-28/anti-israel-one-state-fix-airs-at-harvard-commentary-by-jeffrey-goldberg |access-date=2023-05-21}}</ref>