Even the "progressive left" now advises the "two state solution" for Israel/Palestine is now "dead' after the resounding victory of Prime Minister Netanyahu. And isn't it interesting and instructive that, once again the leftist media, by beating up on their opponents so badly, make what is a comfortable victory a seeming massive landslide "against all the odds."
We saw this with their frantic pile-on on then Governor Sarah Palin when McCain chose her as his running mate. All she had to do was not fall over during her acceptance speech to turn the seething hatred of the media by Republicans into a massive outpouring of support for her, which is of course exactly what happened.
Not enjoying their defeat the New York Times calls on Thomas Friedman to advise that Netanyahu's victory will mark him somewhere between an unwitting Thomas Jefferson and Caligula. Basically the choice for possible "dictator for life" Netanyahu is to lead Israel to a one state that is either a dictatorship run by a Jewish minority in a sea of Arabs-the Hutu/Tutsi solution or, oy, vey iz mir, a non-Jewish democracy-schadenfreude if we are allowed to use a German word at this juncture.
In the world outside of the feverish leftist imagination neither of these two scenarios will come to pass. What are options are the status quo stays in place until the left block gets elected and the two state solution arises phoenix like. Netanyahu could, as Friedman darkly hints, disregard his election statements and revert to his former position and do a Begin/Sadat, most likely under the aegis of a Republican "only Nixon could have gone to China" president, as Obama will have left office long before Netanyahu does.
Or, a federal solution could be created. If, a country could be cobbled together from the Croats/Slovenes/Bosnians/Herzogovinians/Montenegrins/Serbs-have I left anyone out-of yes the Macedonians then putting together some sort of federal republic out of Gaza/West bank and Israel should be a piece of Plava.
What sort of federal state would be put in place would of course be a matter for long and no doubt tortuous negotiations. But, again, if at the creation of the first "Kingdom of the Serbs,Croats and Slovenes" negotiations could put together these disparate religious and ethnic peoples than cobbling together two Semite groups should not be an insurmountable hazard.
One nation of Israel & Palestine could, sensibly encompass having three distinct federal regions. A revolving, symbolic presidency, with governing parliaments for each region whose laws would only affect the regions governed, and a national defense force only manned by the Israeli's with each federal region having its own internal security system. A common currency and reserve bank would be sensible.
Israeli Arabs might have voting rights in either Israel or Palestine and likewise Jews in the Arab regions could have voting rights in Israel. This would remove the current possibility of the larger Arab growth rate, and now united electoral ticket, causing major problems for Jewish nationalists in years to come.
Federalism can be a difficult way to create a country. It almost destroyed the United States, causes sectional antagonism in Belgium and has seen terrible disasters in e.g. Africa. But it has worked in Switzerland and the second Yugoslavia. In the latter it was a more humane situation than what developed with the break-up of the federation surely.
The demographic reality, barring a massive influx of European Jews, demands either a two state or a federal state solution for Israel. Given the current Balkanization of the Palestinians, with the sorry history of Pakistan/Bangladesh as a warning, something has to be done. Examining federalism at this point is an obvious and sensible way forwards.
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