Calling the Middle East’s only democracy a “non-democratic regime” that he’d like to “get rid of” Miko Peled advocates a one state solution in the Windsor Star on October 2, a solution that as HRC Executive Director Mike Fegelman explained in a letter published in the Star, “is a thinly veiled strategy for destroying the State of Israel and questioning its very right to exist”.
Read HRC’s letter to the editor below published in the Windsor Star on October 2 along with a letter by Stu Selby, Chair, Community Relations Committee, Windsor Jewish Federation:
Windsor Star: Mike Fegelman, Executive Director, HonestReporting Canada: “Consensus calls for two-state solution for Israeli-Palestinian conflict” (Oct. 2, 2013)
Miko Peled’s peddling of the “one-state solution” is a thinly veiled strategy for destroying the State of Israel and questioning its very right to exist.
At its most basic level, the one-state solution denies the right of Jews to self-determination in their historical homeland and calls into question the very legitimacy of Israel as a state.
A bi-national state would have the same consequence as the so-called “right of return” – the negation of Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinians, by virtue of a higher birthrate, would turn Jews into a minority before voting in favour of another Muslim Arab state in place of Israel.
His calls for replacing Israel with a single country for Arabs and Jews is just a ploy that calls for the demise of the Jewish state. As Peled himself acknowledges, his goal is to “get rid of this non-democratic regime.”
It’s important to note that such a proposition falls well outside the mainstream consensus which calls for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Windsor Star: Stu Selby, Chair, Community Relations Committee, Windsor Jewish Federation: “Region and world needs win-win solution for Israelis and Palestinians” (Oct. 2, 2013)
A recent article profiled Miko Peled but failed to note just how marginal his views are.
In Canadian terms, Peled’s call for a single state is as outlandish as declaring that Windsor should be annexed to the United States. The difference, of course, is that Israelis and Palestinians have been in a painful conflict for generations.
Peled advocates the destruction of Israel as the world’s only Jewish state with Israeli citizens absorbed into a single state in which the Jewish population would once again be a minority.
This not only denies the right of the Jewish people to self-determination but it also contradicts the UN’s own endorsement of a Jewish state alongside an Arab (Palestinian) state: two states for two peoples.
Looking realistically at the current situation of “peace and justice” in neighbouring Arab states without any of their ancient Jewish communities left, one can only imagine the endless conflict a single state would bring.
Unlike Mr. Peled, most Canadians believe one can be pro-Palestinian without being anti-Israel, just as one can call for a Palestinian state without calling for Israel’s destruction.
The region and the world needs a win-win solution to this painful conflict. Unfortunately, Peled’s position is a recipe for an endless civil war that benefits neither Israelis nor Palestinians.
