West Bank: the hypocrites’ parade

Israel’s government has authorized construction of 1,236 housing units in the E1 area between East Jerusalem and the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement. For Metin Arditi, that decision exposes the gap between public diplomacy and political reality.

The proposed settlement, he writes, would prevent Palestinians from crossing their hypothetical state from north to south. In his view, it would therefore signal the end of the two-state solution.

Governments from a dozen European countries, along with Canada, Australia and about 10 Muslim-majority countries, have opposed the project and spoken out against it. Switzerland is notably absent from that list, Arditi writes, adding a pointed aside about Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.

The column’s central target is the language of condemnation itself. “Two states or nothing,” these governments say, according to Arditi, who argues that they know perfectly well how little such declarations cost. He portrays their opposition as a comfortable display of belonging to “the world of good,” rather than an effort that would materially stop the project.

Arditi then turns to the consequence he sees beyond the settlement debate. If the West Bank and Gaza are annexed and Israel’s unity as a single state is openly accepted, he argues, Israel would eventually have to confront the question of equal rights for all its inhabitants.

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Two states or nothing