The One State Reality: What Is Israel/Palestine?

373 Pages·2023·5.989 MB·English

by  Michael Barnett, Nathan J. Brown, Marc Lynch, Shibley Telhami (eds.)

THE ONE STATE REAL ITY

THE ONE
STATE
REALI TY
What Is Israel/Palestine?
Edited by Michael Barnett,
Nathan J. Brown, Marc Lynch,
and Shibley Telhami
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON
Copyright © 2023 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from
the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage
House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at
cornellpress . cornell . edu.
First published 2023 by Cornell University Press
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Barnett, Michael N., 1960– editor. | Brown, Nathan J., editor. | Lynch,
Marc, 1969– editor. | Telhami, Shibley, editor.
Title: The one state reality : what is Israel/Palestine? / edited by Michael Barnett,
Nathan J. Brown, Marc Lynch, and Shibley Telhami.
Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022039679 (print) | LCCN 2022039680 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781501768392 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501768408 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781501768415 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501768422 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Arab-Israeli conflict. | Palestine—Politics and government—
1948– | Israel—Politics and government.
Classification: LCC DS119.7 .O575 2023 (print) | LCC DS119.7 (ebook) |
DDC 956.04—dc23/eng/20220823
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022039679
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022039680
Cover image: Khaled Hourani, Unnatural Landscape #3, 2020.
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: What Is Israel/Palestine?
Michael Barnett, Nathan J. Brown, and Shibley Telhami 1
Part 1 C HARACTERIZING THE PALESTINIAN-I SRAEL REALI TY
1. What and Where Is Israel?: Time for a Gestalt Shift
Ian S. Lustick 33
2. From Jewish Privilege to Judaic Supremacy:
The Religious Zionist One State Solution
Gershon Shafir 51
3. Israel/Palestine: Toward Decolonization
Yousef Munayyer 68
Part 2 WHAT HAS CHANGED AND WHAT HAS NOT:
KEY D RIVERS
4. Citizenship as a Mobility Regime
Yael Berda 89
5. Delegating Domination: Indirect Rule in the West Bank
Diana B. Greenwald 103
6. The Thorough Insinuation of the One State Real ity into
Palestinian Po liti cal Life
Nathan J. Brown and Iman Elbanna 117
Part 3 CHANGING ATTITUDES: DRIVERS AND LIMITS
7. Palestinians in Israel and the One State Real ity
Mohanad Mustafa and As’ad Ghanem 143
8. American Jewry and the One State Real ity
Michael Barnett and Lara Friedman 155
9. Lessons from How Nationalisms Evolve for a One
State Real ity
Nadav G. Shelef 178
vi CoNTENTS
10. Arab and American Dimensions of the Israel/Palestine Issue:
State Policies and Public Views on One State, Two States,
and Beyond
Shibley Telhami 196
11. Israeli- Palestinian Conflict Resolution and Public Opinion:
Changing Realities, Shifting Perceptions
Omar H. Rahman and Dahlia Scheindlin 210
Part 4 POLICY OPTIONS: THE POS SI BLE AND THE PLAUSIBLE
12. Palestinian Statehood in American Policy: The Changing
Roles of Values, Interests, and Domestic Politics
Kevin Huggard and Tamara Cofman Wittes 239
13. Beyond Oslo: Reimagining Israeli- Palestinian F utures
Khaled Elgindy 262
14. The Eu ro pe ans and the Israeli- Palestinian Conundrum:
Wedded to Man tras
Muriel Asseburg 279
Conclusion: Recognizing a One State Real ity
Marc Lynch 292
Notes 307
Contributors 353
Index 357
Preface
This book began with a random encounter in an elevator at the George Wash-
ington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. It was the spring of
2019 when GW colleagues Michael Barnett, Nathan Brown, and Marc Lynch
began discussing the disconnect between academic and policy discussion about
the Israeli- Palestinian peace pro cess. That sounded like a perfect topic for a
workshop u nder the auspices of Lynch’s Proj ect on M iddle East Po liti cal Science
(POMEPS), which regularly convenes gatherings of scholars to think collectively
about thematic issues of interest to po liti cal science and to the broader public.
In October 2019, POMEPS convened a day- long workshop at the Elliott School
with a wide range of scholars from diverse national and disciplinary backgrounds
under a simple but provocative theme: “What is Israel/Palestine?” As the
discussions evolved, it became clear that many—if not all— the participants w ere
converging around a recognition that it was no longer pos si ble to usefully think
in terms of two states, incipient or other wise. Israel and the territories occupied
after 1967 w ere t oday governed by a single authority that was implemented in
profoundly diff er ent ways across territory, citizenship, and identity. Most of the
short essays produced for that workshop w ere ultimately published in June 2020 in
the open- access journal POMEPS STUDIES under the title “Israel/Palestine:
Exploring the One State Real ity.”
We all believed that there was far more to be done with this topic, given the
deep disconnect between our conclusions and the still- prevailing views in the
policy world. Shibley Telhami of the University of Mary land took the lead on
the next step, a conference planned by the Anwar Sadat Chair Program for
April 2020 that would bring many of the scholars from the POMEPS workshop
together with leading figures in Washington’s M iddle East policy community.
Participants were asked to write short papers that would ultimately be devel-
oped into the chapters of this book. Unfortunately, COVID interfered with our
plans. We instead convened virtually over two days in August 2020 to discuss
the short chapter notes and to develop a shared set of questions, if not answers.
This book collects the fully realized chapters from those workshops.
As editors, we neither sought nor achieved consensus on critical policy issues
or on controversial theoretical choices. We asked our authors not to offer policy
recommendations or to express their normative preferences over what should
be done or what should be. Instead, we asked them to describe Israel and Palestine
vii
viii PrEfaCE
as they are, in real ity, from their own theoretical frameworks and research
findings. This, we believe, is a vital first step toward developing effective policy
interventions and productive research agendas. And we found some vindication
as the ideas we had been developing among ourselves began to push forcefully
into the public sphere, even sooner than we had anticipated, through the high
global visibility of Palestinian strug gles to resist the confiscation of their homes
in East Jerusalem.
We benefited from the assistance of many p eople along the way, especially
those who participated in our workshops. Jim Lance at Cornell University Press
ushered the proj ect into the publication phase, helped by thoughtful and
constructive suggestions from outside reviewers and members of the Cornell
University Press Faculty Board. In addition, we thank the following for their
assistance along the way: Brittany Kyser and Kirsten Langlois at the University
of Mary land; and Nora Palandjian, Stephanie Dahle, Prerna BalaEddy and Tessa
Talebi at the Proj ect on Middle East Po liti cal Science.
This volume represents a beginning, not an end, and it raises questions more
than provides answers. We invite you to join t hose discussions as we collectively
seek a path forward.
Michael Barnett, Nathan J. Brown,
Marc Lynch, Shibley Telhami
Introduction
WHAT IS ISRAEL/PALESTINE?
Michael Barnett, Nathan J. Brown, and Shibley Telhami
Israel/Palestine has always seemed to be in a state of becoming something e lse;
for more than a c entury, the po liti cal status of the area has been contested by nu-
merous parties, all working to make their vision a real ity.1 The premise of this
volume is that viewing Israel/Palestine as in the pro cess of becoming has ob-
scured understanding it as a state of being. T oday, the inhabitants of the territory
are living a one state real ity. Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan
River, t here is one state that controls the entry and exit of p eople and goods, over-
sees security, and has the capacity to impose its decisions, laws, and policies. Over
these de cades the parties have spoken and often acted as if this w ere a temporary
state of affairs. But a half- century defies most definitions of temporary: it has a
permanence. We recognize that t here are many who continue to want an alterna-
tive real ity. We do not pre sent this book to refute them but to focus on the real ity
that exists. We do recognize that a one state real ity does not presume that it is a
“solution” to the often- conflicting demands of Jewish and Palestinian national-
isms; indeed, the fact that the real ity is not necessarily a solution allows many to
cling to the hope that t here w ill be a two state real ity.
This volume is about the one state real ity. When we began this proj ect three
years ago, we thought we w ere being bold. At that time much international discus-
sion continued as if the status quo w ere temporary and headed, inevitably, t oward
a two state solution. But increasingly, a diff er ent tune can be heard: the status quo
is being treated not as temporary but as permanent.2 Our purpose is to aid in the
re orientation of conversations— a re orientation already begun in diff er ent ways
(and to very diff er ent degrees) in scholarly circles, in policy discussions, and in
1