I guess we should be grateful that congressman Joe Walsh did not get into specifics, when he unveiled his proposal for an Israel-Palestine settlement. But it's a disarmingly candid expression of what many in the GOP now believe:
The two-state solution has failed. Only a one-state solution – a single, undivided Israel – will bring peace, security and prosperity to Israelis and Palestinians alike.
What about the Palestinians? Bob Wright explains Walsh's project:
Give Palestinians who live in those territories "limited voting power" in the new, bigger Israel that they'll have suddenly become residents of. (Walsh doesn't define his euphemism, but no doubt the idea is that Jews get one-person-one-vote and Palestinians get something less, so that Israel can remain a Jewish state.) … Palestinians who don't like having "limited voting power" can move to Jordan.
Bob explains why this is more than troubling:
When you (1) tell members of an ethnic group that the land they live on is being given to another nation; (2) tell them that neither they nor their descendants will be allowed to vote in that nation's elections, even though next-door neighbors of a different ethnicity can; (3) tell them that the only way to avoid this fate is to go to another country–yeah, I'd call that ethnic cleansing, at least of a "soft" variety.
I think that's where Israel is eventually headed: ethnic cleansing by a variety of means, sealing its abandonment of the Western tradition for pure tribalism – and worse. I desperately hope I'm wrong, but the last few years are deeply discouraging for any serious two-state solution. Greenwald notes:
We all know the rules by now: it's okay to tell Palestinians to get out of Israel, but not Jews. Why? Er …
The Dish 