Just As I Called It

Back in May, I penned an oped which the NYTimes did not accept. I had quoted Khalil Shakiki who wrote there:

if the Palestinians don’t speak with one voice, the peace process cannot go far.

In my submission, I wrote:

At the present moment, “Palestine” has evolved over the past eight decades into four states. There is Israel and there is Jordan. Hamas controls Gaza and Fatah, for the time being, control Judea and Samaria. On January 27, 2009, Thomas Friedman suggested on this page that a five-state solution should be considered. Inflation is never a good idea. Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that a two-state solution already exists. Jordan is the Islamic Arab fulfillment of local nationalist claims and Israel is the fulfillment of Jewish national claims. All that is left are arrangements of a political, cultural and economic character to assure the rights and expectation of both populations within that geographical delineation.

I recalled that when I saw this:

...the two Palestinian territories [Gaza and the WB] have grown increasingly antagonistic toward each other.

The notion of a single "Palestine" seems to be receding, for the Barakat brothers and all Palestinians, a process accelerated by Israeli policies that restrict travel into and out of the Gaza Strip and limit its economic growth in a bid to undercut support for the area's ruling Islamist Hamas movement. Gaza and the West Bank are not only run by competing governments but also differ in indicators such as birthrates, population growth, cultural and religious attitudes, and prosperity. What is a two-hour car trip seems like a world away, with travel and other restrictions making it difficult for friends to visit and family members to gather.

And this telling mindset:

If the West Bank branch of the Barakat family views coexistence with Israel as important, the Barakat branch in Gaza is not so sanguine. Although hardly radical and not supportive of violence -- the family members here say they are disenchanted with aspects of Hamas's governance -- the children, in particular, do not envision peace. "There is no chance to coexist," Yousef said. "Israel does not want peace."

Maybe the Gazans should try stopping terror?

Freedland: I First Suggested A Four-State Solution

In June of 2007, I proposed an idea: that there was no longer a two-state solution but what is on the table is nothing less than a four-state solution.

So, who steals my thunder?

One Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian who writes: With a four-state problem impeding any two-state solution, the best hope for peace may be to make the stakes even higher and claims, silly boy:

Forget the two-state solution: start thinking about the four-state problem. The phrase comes from Palestinian negotiator and analyst Ahmad Khalidi, who has toiled for decades to see two states side by side, one for Palestinians, the other for Israelis.

Imagine that.