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In reply to the discussion: Palestinians: Settlement Expansion Means 1 State [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And in any case, they'd never be able to even if they wanted to do that.
The problem is, the settlements do nothing to prevent any of the things you listed above, and can only make them more likely.
The only way to have a real two-state solution is to accept that a Palestinian state shouldn't be made progressively smaller and should not have to live totally at Israel's mercy(insisting on that is the problem with the demand that A Palestinian state be completely demilitarized). There will be a long time after the creation of a Palestinian state during which West Bank revanchists will hold considerable sway in Israeli politics and may get the balance of power in the Knesset...thus, a Palestinian state will need to be able to protect itself against any attempts to re-establish the settlements or retake the West Bank. Plus, it will need to be able to have complete control over its own water supply(no country should ever have the power to restrict another country's access to water...that's simply human decency).
BOTH sides have legitimate security issues. Both sides have the right to be safe and to never be under the thumb of the other. That's the only way to make a real two-state solution work...it can't work if the Palestinian state is simply to be a statelet-on-sufferance, whose sovereignty can be yanked away at a moment's notice.