Middle East:Palestinian thinkers offer different assessments of the two-state solution, writes Michael Jansen.
Palestinian political thinkers dwelling on both banks of the Jordan River believe Israel has pre-empted a two-state solution involving the creation of a Palestinian state to coexist with the Jewish state.
A Ramallah-based intellectual says no viable Palestinian state can emerge in the archipelago of Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israeli-encircled Gaza.
He argues that the Arab League's land-for-peace plan, the only proposal on the table, is being used to camouflage Arab impotence, the refusal of the international community to broker meaningful negotiations, and Israel's "land grab in East Jerusalem and the West Bank".
Palestinians should expose the two-state illusion, because it gives the false impression it is the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, he claims.
Dr Mahdi Abdel Hadi, head of a Palestinian think-tank in Jerusalem, observes that when Israeli premier Ehud Olmert meets US president George Bush this month they will ignore the realities on the ground and publicly endorse the Arab plan and invite Arabs and Israelis to meet.
While Arab leaders are likely to decline because Mr Olmert refuses to commit to the Arab call for full withdrawal in exchange for full normalisation, Dr Abdel Hadi believes they could send Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa to see what the Israelis have to say.
In the absence of serious negotiations, Dr Abdel Hadi argues that the normalisation process started long ago will proceed and radical spoiler groups that have hijacked Islam will continue to rise and threaten the existing regional order. He points out that Palestinians have reversed course since the days of Yasser Arafat who asserted their right to make their own decisions.
The current weak and divided Palestinian leadership now depends on the Arabs, particularly Jordan and Egypt, not only to relaunch the moribund peace process but also to step in to end the conflict between Hamas and Fatah and, perhaps, assume administrative functions the fractured Palestinian government cannot perform.
But Dr Abdel Hadi argues that intervention would be political suicide for Cairo and Amman.
During a meeting with several Palestinian intellectuals at the Jerusalem Forum office in Amman, Dr Hazem Nusseibeh, a Jerusalemite who served as Jordan's foreign minister, says that in 1979, when Jordan was a member of the United Nations Security Council, he submitted a map showing that Israel had "colonised 29 per cent of the West Bank and we warned that unless something was done about it, it would be the end of any peace process".
The council adopted resolution number 465 deploring Israel's activities but nothing was done to halt the settlement drive.
Consequently, "2.5 million Palestinians are now confined to enclaves in 40 per cent of the West Bank, 10 per cent of [geographic] Palestine, while 450,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank".
Dr Nusseibeh says the two-state solution can be rescued only if Israeli settlers withdraw from towns and cities built in the West Bank.
"These should not be demolished but handed over to Palestinian displaced and refugees."
The only viable alternative to this is one state, embracing both Israeli Jews and Palestinians. He remarks: "The one-state solution was floated by Fatah in 1970 but it was shot down.
"The Israelis have created an impossible situation and they want the Palestinians to come up with an impossible answer. I advise Arab countries to stop talking about an Arab initiative and let the Israelis continue their occupation.
"As long as we have four or five million people living in Palestine, things will work themselves out over time. Let's stop talking about a peace process and resist to the best of our ability."
Nawal Shihabi al-Khatib argues that Palestinians should highlight Israeli violations of their human rights. "This is something that would get international support." She and the others agreed that Israel should be treated like apartheid South Africa.
Yacoub Jury, a retired diplomat and former UN official, remarks: "The 2006 war was a wake-up call. Israel cannot count forever on its military superio- rity. This has declined since 1967."
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, seen by the Arabs as the victor of last summer's war, "is now a hero . . . all the Arabs need is one person to unite them and the situation will be different".