In this provocative Foreign Affairs essay, the authors argue that the two-state solution is no longer a realistic future option but a political illusion masking an existing one-state reality.
They contend that Israel already exercises effective control over all territory between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, forcing policymakers to confront questions of equality, citizenship, rights, and democracy rather than future partition.
The entire article revolves around a single claim:
The most important mistake policymakers make is treating Israel and Palestine as a future two-state problem when they already function as a single political space. Once that reality is acknowledged, the central question becomes not partition, but how rights, citizenship, democracy, and equality should be organized within that existing one-state reality. ⭐
The article’s main takeaway is that the international community is increasingly operating on an outdated assumption: that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is moving toward two states. ⭐
The authors argue that policymakers should instead recognize an existing one-state reality and focus on rights, citizenship, equality, and democratic accountability.
For U.S. foreign policy, this means shifting from preserving a stalled peace process to applying consistent standards of human rights and international law. ⭐
For Israel, it raises a fundamental question: can a state exercise permanent control over millions of Palestinians while remaining both democratic and internationally legitimate?