>I read these articles with great interest. I confess that I don't
>know much about the one-state approach; is it really a live option
>at this point? Are there prominent Israelis and Palestinians backing
>it,
Some. <http://www.one-state.org/articles> has hundreds of pieces by people who support the idea (and some who most definitely don't).
Earlier this year, the desperate Qurei said that the two-state solution might be over and that a binational solution was the only option. Of course, that was just a threat (which he recanted the next day) meant to scare Israel into giving the Palestinians a state by raising the specter of the "demographic problem." But apparently there is a real revival of the one-state idea among Palestinians in the refugee camps, now that the two-state plan (Oslo) made things much, much worse for them.
Amira Hass wrote a story a couple of years ago on some Hamas militants who happened to mention that they were for one state. The irony that their organization wants to drive Jews into the Mediterranean didn't dawn on them. That made me aware that support for the idea can take hold in unexpected places.
>and could the US gov't (which is the 800 lb. gorilla here) be
>persuaded to accept it?
I think with certain provisos, U.S. interests would remain safe in a binational state. They might even be enhanced. Then again, I don't see what the U.S. gets out of its current fanatical devotion to Israel, so maybe my insight into the imperial mind is for crap.
>Obviously, as Khalidi suggests in the former of these articles, if
>South Africa is a precedent, the Israelis and Arabs would have to be
>ready to reconcile if the one-state solution were to work. But it
>seems that one of the most formidable obstacles to the one-state
>solution is that this reconciliation will be damned hard to do, eh?
I don't know. Maybe, but it's helpful to remember that their conflict is not primarily, if it is at all, between two people, even though ideologues and know-nothings bloviate about ancient hatreds and the like. The struggle is about ideology, colonialism, and, mostly, imperialist designs. I suspect reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis--the people, the cultures, the societies--would be easier to accomplish than, say, dissuading Tom DeLay of the idea that a Jewish state is essential for the eternal salvation of his soul.
Eric