It’s been tried twice. The first time was in April 1921 when Britain hived a part of Mandatory Palestine into an Arab (Palestinian) state: Jordan. But the world would not recognize that, and without any notice, the land promised to the Jews by the Balfor Declaration was shrunk by seventy-five percent and then forgotten, leaving the land “from the river to the sea” as Palestine.
The second time was when Israel unilaterally gave away Gaza. In September 2005, Israel 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐉𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 and pulled out every soldier — a total withdrawal, not a partial one. For the first time, Gaza was fully self-governed by Palestinians, with no Israeli soldier or settler left inside its borders.
In addition to Israel’s “gifting” of Gaza to the Palestinians, over forty billion dollars was given to Gaza’s “government” in the period from 2005 through 2023. If that money had been invested in Gaza’s infrastructure, I speculate that Gaza would be comparable, possibly even rival the United Arab Emirates in wealth. Its capital, Abu Dhabi is said to be the worlds wealthiest city.
But things went down the shit hole pretty fast. Palestinians used that self-rule to elect Hamas in 2006, then let the terror group seize total control in a bloody 2007 coup. Hamas had control of those donated billions, so what followed was not statehood-building. It was 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 fired at Israeli civilians, a tunnel network built for war, and finally Hamas’ 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟕 2023 (attempted) genocide.
When that “two-state” experiment blew up in the world’s face, nobody in Europe said the model had failed. Nobody said sorry to Israel. They kept demanding Israel hand over more land — never blaming the actor who turned the last handover into a launching pad.
The best thing about the “two state solution” is that it has the word “solution” in it. Say it enough times and people forget to ask whether it ever worked.
𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞.
