New violence has made the two-state solution seem harder to reach than ever, but it is still the least bad vision for Palestinians and Israelis
by Gershom Gorenberg / January 21, 2016 / Leave a commentPublished in February 2016 issue of Prospect Magazine
A Palestinian protester hurls a rock towards Israeli forces during clashes near Shejaiya, an eastern district of Gaza City, December 2015. ©Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
Scroll to the bottom for Prospect Editor Bronwen Maddox’s take on the “one-state” debate
Gush Etzion Junction is a big unkempt roundabout where two roads and several separate universes meet. To the north, the highway runs along the mountain ridge of the West Bank to Jerusalem. To the south, following an ancient route, it continues to Hebron and beyond. The east and west spokes lead to Israeli settlements and Palestinian villages. A new road sign on the eastern carriageway points to a nature reserve named after three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists while hitchhiking in June 2014.
When I went to the junction on a wintry afternoon, some high school girls and a woman in a sweater-dress and beret were waiting to hitchhike north. Stickers on the nearby bus shelter warned hitchhikers to stand behind the concrete posts on the pavement. The posts are there to protect people from drivers who swerve onto the pavement to run them over—a common type of attack against Israelis by lone Palestinians in recent months.
There’s a petrol station and a supermarket on the west side of the junction. Security cameras are hung in groups from the lamp-…
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