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In short, there are three alternatives to a two-state solution. Each will be disastrous – for Israel, that is.

One: Abandon the Zionist vision of a Jewish state and let Palestinians and Jews enjoy equal political rights. This will never happen. There is no way that the Jewish people will agree to live as a minority in a state dominated by an Arab majority. Israel’s supporters in America will have no interest in this outcome.

Two: Israel expels all Palestinians in an act of ethnic cleansing, pretty much like what they did in 1948. This might actually happen, considering the recent Gaza massacre. They are so concerned about the survival of this Jewish state they’re capable of doing just such a sickening thing. However, the Palestinians will put up brutal resistance. There will be lots of blood. Will the West sit back once again? Probably so. This will be the absolute beginning of the end.

Three: Apartheid. This is the most likely outcome. The Arabs will be forced to live in small enclaves with limited autonomy, economically crippled and with no part in the political process. This is pretty much how things are right now.

Democracy in Israel won’t be tolerated, since the Arabs, who are the majority, would dominate its politics.

John Mearsheimer:
Imagine if the roles were reversed and a powerful Palestinian state was taking land away from Jewish inhabitants and brutalizing them in the process. There would rightfully be a storm of protest in the US and across Europe and tremendous pressure would be brought to bear on that Palestinian state to immediately cease exploiting the Jews and permit them to have a state of their own. But when Israelis colonize the West Bank and effectively turn Gaza into a giant prison for the Palestinians who live there, the US government not only does not protest, it backs Israel to the hilt. And that includes Barack Obama.

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This article is based on John Mearsheimer‘s talk in Oslo, October 5th 2009. The personal rants are all mine, though. John doesn’t seem to be a man of swear words…
Huge thanks to John for sending me the speech, both in English and in Norwegian.

Yesterday, Antiwar.com published the article The Israel Lobby, the Neocons, and the Iranian-American Community. It’s well worth reading.

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This article is based on John Mearsheimer‘s talk in Oslo, October 5th 2009. The personal rants are all mine, though. John doesn’t seem to be a man of swear words…
Huge thanks to John for sending me the speech, both in English and in Norwegian.

President Obama is a man of words, but is he a man of action? During his presidential campaign 2008 and since taking office, he made – and still makes – a lot of promises. Regarding U.S. policy in the Middle East he made it very clear that he was committed to settling the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. To do this he would get Israel to stop expanding its settlements in the occupied territories and – in the future – allow the Palestinians to have their own state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Also, he said that he – as opposed to George W. Bush – believed in diplomatic, serious negotiations with Iran, instead of military attacks and threats of economic sanctions.

However, this will probably never happen, since the Israel Lobby simply won’t allow such humane behaviour.

The Netanyahu government in Israel is opposed to giving the Palestinians their own state, and it is also deeply committed to expanding the settlements. No president will be allowed to play the hardball game with Israel, because the goal is to control the whole West Bank and the Gaza Strip, leaving the Arabs with small enclaves inside Israel – pretty much like a white-ruled South Africa. Read more about zionism here.

As for Iran, it is looked upon as an existential threat to the Jewish state, and the Israel Lobby and its supporters have no interest in talking to a regime who, they believe, wants to ”wipe Israel off the map” (fact is, Ahmadinejad never said that, read more about that in the Propaganda for war article).
Note that Israel is the only country in the world advocating war against Iran. Inside the U.S., there are only pro-Israel individuals and dito organizations who support using force in this case. In fact, there would be little talk about attacking Iran if Israel and the Lobby were not bitching about war all the time. And again: who are the ones in possession of nuclear weapons? Also read this article in The Economist.

Even though Israel constantly do things that the U.S. opposes, they still get more foreign aid – billions of dollars each year – than any other country. Every goddamn American president since 1967 has – in theory, in meek words – opposed settlement-building in the occupied territories, still Israel continues to break the rules. And they’re not being punished – they’re constantly being rewarded. Why is that? The answer: the enormous power of the Israel Lobby. America is completely impotent when it comes to dealing with Israel. Serious criticism of Israel is never heard of from American officials. It’s a joke, really.
Ok, Obama made it very clear that he would like to see a stop of any settlement activity, and that he’d like a Palestinian state. However, Netanyahu also made it very clear that he would not stop, and that he didn’t like the idea of a two-state solution. Who won? Israel, of course. This tiny country in a distant region continue to rule the giant U.S. colossus. Isn’t that strange?

John Mearsheimer:
Netanyahu not only refused to stop building 2500 housing units in the West Bank, but just to make it clear to Obama who was boss, in late June, he authorized the building of 300 new homes in the West Bank. Netanyahu refused to even countenance any limits on settlement building in East Jerusalem, which is supposed to be the capitol of a Palestinian state. In fact, Israel went ahead, despite American protests, and converted an old Arab hotel in East Jerusalem into a Jewish apartment building. The Israelis also expelled two Arab families from their homes that they had lived in for 50 years and issued tenders for 468 new apartments in East Jerusalem.

Obama meekly asked Israel to please ”restrain” itself while it continued colonizing the West Bank.

Talk is cheap.
Change?
Hope?
Yes we can?
No, you can’t. Not when it comes to Israel and the lobby.

The Israel Lobby’s influence is at its peak during the presidential campaigns. You won’t ever witness such a campaign without the mentioning if this tiny but powerful country. 
After Obama had won the election he remained perfectly silent during the recent Gaza massacre. The whole world stood up and criticized Israel for its brutal assault, but Obama kept quiet. A few months later he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize…
I still wonder about all you naïve Obama worshippers who cried during his inaugural speech: when are you going to wake the fuck up?

When reading this, and since it’s such a sensitive subject just mentioning Jews, I think it’s of great importance that you recognize this: the Lobby is defined by its political agenda, not by ethnicity or religion. The Israel Lobby is not necessarily synonymous with Jewish-Americans. The Christian Zionists, for example, that work on Israel’s behalf, are not Jewish.
In other words: your shallow hate mongering about anti-Semitism does not compute.

To be continued…

EDIT:
Monday, 16 november 2009, The Independent publishes an interesting article entitled “Palestinian push for an independent state causes Israeli alarm“. Pretty much says it all…

> I got a letter from John Mearsheimer the other day. I opened and read it, it said they were suckers.

Well, he didn’t say that, really, but he enclosed a speech he gave in Norway recently, and the finishing words read as follows:

“The bottom line is straightforward: President Obama is not going to be able to push Israel to accept a two-state solution. Instead, Israel will continue to colonize the West Bank and eventually turn itself into an apartheid state. Given that grim future, the Israelis are likely to think more and more about expelling the Palestinians from their midst, as they have done in the past. All of this is to say that Netanyahu’s recent victory over Obama was no victory at all. On the contrary, it means that there will be big trouble ahead for Israel, the United States, and especially the Palestinians.“
John Mearsheimer, October 5 2009, Oslo, Norway

I’ll return to John’s speech and letter as soon as possible.
To be able to communicate with the author of the book I’m reading and obviously using as source for these articles is amazing. Hail the internet, freedom of speech and a true and honest debate above all.
Read more about John Mearsheimer.