Last week President Donald Trump had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. In a surprising reversal of decades of U.S. foreign policy precedent, Trump declared that it would no longer be the United States' priority to settle the conflict between Israeli and Palestinian groups by establishing a Palestinian state in the region. According to Trump, this decision is based on his desire for Israel and Palestine to handle the issue internally and to come to what he sees as a mutually beneficial deal based on bilateral compromises.
The president's familiar rhetoric of "making deals" however fails to take into consideration that the majority of both Palestinian Arabs and Israelis are not interested in a one state solution to the conflict. Israelis are opposed to formation of a multicultural, secular Israel because of the political ramifications. This course of action would force the Israeli government to open positions and rights that are, as of now, only afforded to Jewish citizens of Israel. The problem that many Israelis have with this is that the Arab population of Israel itself as well as the occupied territories of West Bank and Gaza is steadily growing much faster than the Israeli population. The Arab population is predicted to overtake the Israeli population by 2020, which would leave Israeli Jews the minority in a country that was supposedly founded for them specifically. There is also opposition to a one state solution from the Palestinian side of the conflict. Many Palestinians believe that a single state, though secular in name, may be an importunity for the Israeli government to persecute Arabs even more than have done in the past. Supporters of a two state solution often point to the Israelis government continued disregard for the laws disallowing Israeli settlements on land that is already claimed by Palestinians. To many Arabs in the region this an example that even if a single, secular state is formed the Israeli elite may not be trusted to follow the laws that come along with it.
These issues have led the conflict to the state it is in today, a sort of perpetual stalemate with neither side willing to concede anything to the other. In the past, it has been U.S. policy to work around this diplomatic block by advocating for a partition of the land now claimed by Israel and forming two states in the region, one for Palestinian Arabs and another for Israeli Jews for whom the state of Israel was created in the first place. Trump's reversal of this long-held policy will most likely increase tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and most likely will not result in the one state solution that he is looking for.
