A Binational Approach to the Palestine Conflict

Abstract

Binationalism as a possible solution to the bitter conflict between Arab and Jewish nationalisms in Palestine is not a novel conception. Thirty and even forty years ago there were Zionists such as Dr. Judah Magnes' and leaders of the Ha-Shoraer ha-Zair movement who conceived of binationalism as a middle way toward resolution of the conflict. However, neither Palestine Arab nationalists nor most Zionist leaders found such proposals meritorious. By the end of World War II when the Biltmore program 3 calling for a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine had become accepted Zionist policy, and establishment of the country as an independent Arab state was the generally proclaimed goal of Palestine's Arab leaders, 4 a binationalist compromise seemed even more remote. Extermination of ninety per cent of Europe's Jews, and intensification of Arab nationalism deepened the rift between the two groups of peoples. Zionists, with the support of most organized world Jewry, by and large declared willingness to accept less than all of Palestine rather than surrender to a shared sovereignty. They preferred a smaller but exclusive Jewish state in part of the disputed area to a diluted control within a larger region. Without complete sovereignty, they believed, it would be impossible to achieve their total national

Peace Proposals for the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967–1976

“…The West Bank and Gaza/Palestinians The sudden emergence of the Palestinian resistance groups to the forefront of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the aftermath of the 1967 war, first rivalling and then supplanting the Jordanian government as spokesmen for the Palestinian Arabs, is reflected in the linkage that most peace proposals make between the future of Jordan's West Bank and a resolution of the Palestinian plight by creation of an autonomous entity for them there that retains only tenuous, if any, links with the Hashemite Kingdom. Both Michael Adams (1968), a British journalist and author, and Prof. Don Peretz (1968) of SUNY-Binghamton, define the crux of the Arab-Israeli problem as finding a workable formula for Arab-Jewish coexistence within Palestine. This, Adams says, had been the aim of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and the 19^7 UN Partition Resolution.…”

Peace Proposals for the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967 -1976

“…Both Michael Adams (1968), British journalist and author, and Professor Don Peretz (1968), of SUNY-Binghamton, define the crux of the Arab-Israeli problem as finding a workable formula for Arab-Jewish coexistence within Palestine. This, Adams says, had been the aim of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and the tory Palestine would be too small to be assured of viability.…”