Gideon Elazar: Moving away from partition (2017)

Daniel J. Elazar’s 1991 idea of a federal solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seemed to have been discredited by the Oslo process and its hope for a successful partition of the land between Jordan and Mediterranean between two independent nation states. With these hopes largely dashed, Elazar’s son Gideon seeks to re-examine the federal idea: the establishment of a single political entity divided into two provinces or states to incorporate both Jewish and Palestinian nations. While the federal solution could potentially face many obstacles, it would enable Israelis and Palestinians to place less emphasis on the drawing of borders and would avoid the traumatic and potentially violent ordeal of evicting entire populations from their homes. Moreover, federal solutions would allow both peoples to conduct their social, religious and cultural life autonomously while sharing political power at the federal level. Most importantly, working towards a federal solution would require both peoples to abandon ideas of separation and recognize our shared fate – living together in a single geographic unit. (Moving away from partition the federal road to peace)