Karpi
The Darkest Magikarp
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2010
- Messages
- 1,141
- Reaction score
- 14
(In regards to Israel+Palestine, though feel free to use China/Taiwan, Ireland, Korea, etc as examples)
I don't see this discussed a lot, so I'd like to see what Bulbagardeners think about a one state solution as opposed to the normal two state solution for the Israel/Palestine crisis.
To me this seems like a good idea because it immediately resolves all border disputes. Settlements suddenly are just towns, and one group can go live in the more fertile areas if they wish. Jews and Muslims can live in whatever parts of the country they want because they are going to share their holy land. Jerusalem is suddenly the capital, and everyone has access to their holy sites.
The most obvious risks are that of either Jewish oppression of Muslims (the current situation in Israel more or less) or eventual Muslim oppression of Jews (the current situation in many other places) due to the much higher birth rate of Palestinians/immigration. There are plenty of examples in history when sharing hasn't worked out.
But! All you really have to do is solve 3 major problems:
1. Support for separation of church and state
2. Sympathy for people who are different than you
Part 1 is where the situation gets messy. Preventing religiously based laws from being enacted would require some outside body to oversee new potential laws. Trying to enforce political secularism in a place that has never really had it would be difficult. I assume there is a reason why all the rich and powerful countries don't enforce mega sanctions against theocracies around the world to get them to change, so there has to be a strong political will from within the single state to make it work.
Part 2 is easy in some ways, but hard in other ways. Remind the Jews of their centuries of being discriminated against. Tell the Muslims that they now know what discrimination feels like. Both of these are extremely important, because a situation has to be created where extremist groups trying to break away into a fundamentalist Jewish/Muslim state, declare war against the main state, and start the cycle over again have to be ridiculed and seen as unacceptable by the vast majority of the population.
Those are just my thoughts. What do all of you think about this as a permanent alternative to the two state solution? All opinions are welcome!
I don't see this discussed a lot, so I'd like to see what Bulbagardeners think about a one state solution as opposed to the normal two state solution for the Israel/Palestine crisis.
To me this seems like a good idea because it immediately resolves all border disputes. Settlements suddenly are just towns, and one group can go live in the more fertile areas if they wish. Jews and Muslims can live in whatever parts of the country they want because they are going to share their holy land. Jerusalem is suddenly the capital, and everyone has access to their holy sites.
The most obvious risks are that of either Jewish oppression of Muslims (the current situation in Israel more or less) or eventual Muslim oppression of Jews (the current situation in many other places) due to the much higher birth rate of Palestinians/immigration. There are plenty of examples in history when sharing hasn't worked out.
But! All you really have to do is solve 3 major problems:
1. Support for separation of church and state
2. Sympathy for people who are different than you
Part 1 is where the situation gets messy. Preventing religiously based laws from being enacted would require some outside body to oversee new potential laws. Trying to enforce political secularism in a place that has never really had it would be difficult. I assume there is a reason why all the rich and powerful countries don't enforce mega sanctions against theocracies around the world to get them to change, so there has to be a strong political will from within the single state to make it work.
Part 2 is easy in some ways, but hard in other ways. Remind the Jews of their centuries of being discriminated against. Tell the Muslims that they now know what discrimination feels like. Both of these are extremely important, because a situation has to be created where extremist groups trying to break away into a fundamentalist Jewish/Muslim state, declare war against the main state, and start the cycle over again have to be ridiculed and seen as unacceptable by the vast majority of the population.
Those are just my thoughts. What do all of you think about this as a permanent alternative to the two state solution? All opinions are welcome!
