Perhaps in the best of all possible worlds, Israel would be a secular nation comprising all of the WB and Gaza, with equal rights for all citizens and a Constitution enshrining those principles. Perhaps in the best of all possible worlds, Israel would never have been established. In the best of all possible worlds, Palestinians would never have been ethnically cleansed from their land. In the best of all possible worlds, the Holocaust would never have happened.
This is not the best of all possible worlds.
I see a lot of folks here support the one state solution. For those people I have a few questions.
First, and probably most critically, how do you get there? What specific steps need to be taken to arrive at a single unified, secular state? Are you willing to endorse the use of force to achieve a single state?
Secondly, what measures would need to be taken to ensure that a single state is or remains secular? What do you do for example, if the majority votes to dismantly the secular state?
If the people of Israel and/or Palestine are both opposed to such a solution, as they currently are, is it acceptable for one state to be imposed? How do you change minds?
Most Israelis and many, maybe most Jews, see the one state solution as a pretext to destroy Israel as a Jewish state They believe they'd be second class citizens- or worse- in an Israel where they're the minority. Whether you believe their fears are justified or paranoia, those fears are real to them. What could be done to ameliorate those widespread fears?
I don't really get the enthusiasm for something that's so pie in the sky- and so strongly opposed by at least one side of those directly involved. I'm not particularly hopeful about a two state solution, but I'm bemused by those who declare the two state solution dead as a doornail and then suggest that the one state solution is viable. Say what? How on earth is it more viable? Demographic exigencies a few decades down the road, may well create a one state solution, but beyond that, the possibility of imposing one state, within the next few decades, is about as far fetched as anything I can think of.
So even if you think Israel is a nation that should never have been, or that as a Jewish nation it should cease to exist, how do you realistically arrive at the one state solution?