My letter to the Washington Post RE Jimmy Carter's The Elders' View Of the Middle East

RE: Jimmy Carter's The Elders' View Of the Middle East
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090402968.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090402968_Comments.html

Dear Editor,

From afar, it is easy to be convinced that a one state solution will inevitably bring justice and peace and all the many the benefits of real democracy to the oppressed and displaced people of historic Palestine.

But will it?

It is hard to imagine that things could become worse- but they can.

Carter, stepping up to bring attention to the importance of supporting a two state solution is wise to point out "A more likely alternative to the present debacle is one state, which is obviously the goal of Israeli leaders who insist on colonizing the West Bank and East Jerusalem."

Already the Palestinian refugee crisis is the largest, longest running refugee crisis in the world today. How many more Palestinians will Israel impoverish and displace because as things are today it is easily able to do exactly that?

Hussein Ibish recently explained on his Ibishblog why he wrote his newest book What's Wrong with the One-State Agenda? "I am not an optimist who thinks it will be easy or inevitable to end the occupation and secure peace between Israel and Palestine, and I have no illusions about the difficulties and the considerable prospects for failure. However, I also have no illusions about the alternative, which is not a single, democratic state for all the Arabs and Jews between the river and the sea, or, for that matter, a nonviolent, Gandhian campaign of civil disobedience. The practical alternative is continued conflict, violence and occupation in an increasingly religious context that intensifies the process of turning a conflict that is difficult to resolve into one that is completely impervious to any solution. Neither Palestinians nor Israelis, nor their friends in the United States and around the world, can afford to believe that the other side is going to be vanquished, capitulate or simply abandon its national agenda and interests." http://www.ibishblog.com/

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab