Israel’s Dilemma
Palestinian Arabs present a challenge to Israel that is at once more straightforward and infinitely more difficult to solve. Within one or two decades, the number of Muslim and Christian Arabs living under Israeli control including in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel itself will surpass the number of Israeli Jews. When that happens, if there is still no Palestinian state and in the absence of large-scale ethnic cleansing, Israelis will be forced to choose between two futures. Their country will either be Jewish, but not democratic — in other words, a Jewish minority will control a land mostly inhabited by Palestinians — or Israel will be democratic, but not Jewish, because Arabs will form the majority in what will become a bi-national state.
Israel will be Jewish, or democratic. It cant be both. And if it cant be both, the Zionist dream on which Israel is founded will end. This is the gravest threat Israel faces on the eve of its 60th anniversary. It wont have another 60 years to address it.
This is why I am a supporter of the two state solution. It is also though why I honestly think that Israel as a safe homeland for the Jews was the wrong path for that people. Jewish safety and freedom can best be gained by a commitment to individual rights, regardless of ethnicity, nationality and religion, and an religious/ethnic based state is the antithesis of that. The best place in the world for Jews is America, not Israel.
In all fairness though, that was not at all obvious in the 40s when American anti-semitism was far more common then it is now.
