https://johnkilcullen.net/TwoPoints.html
I need to explain two points. First, why I
disagree with the
current labour government’s “two-state” policy, and second why I
think there
should be a single, multicultural state.
In many countries there has been a big shift in
public
opinion against Israel, as a result mainly of its attack on Gaza.
According to
Pew Research, 4 June, 2026: "Most
people
across 36 countries have negative views of Israel". In
Australia 79% are unfavourable, almost 4 out of 5; of Australians
aged 18-34
the unfavorability is 87%, almost 9 out of ten.
As a result of this shift of public opinion
politicians have
started to talk differently. British Foreign Secretary, Ed.
Miliband: “I want
to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed
elsewhere who have
been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people:
we hear you, you
were
right.” Until very recently in Australia and “like-minded”
countries
there was bipartisan support for Israel. But now some politicians
are becoming critical
of Israel, but there has been no effective action. This is mainly
because, the
United States government still supports Israel up to the hilt, and
the US has a
veto in the Security Council, the only body that can authorise
strong action.
Australia, along with a number of "like-minded"
countries (Canada and various European countries, including UK,
France,
Belgium) has recognised Palestine as a state. This will have no
effect. About
140 members of the United Nations already recognised a Palestinian
state long
ago, but that recognition has never made the slightest difference
to the lives
of Palestinians. There is no state of Palestine, and recognising
one does not
bring it into existence.
According to Mr Albanese, a future state of
Palestine must
be demilitarised and Hamas must play no part in it. A state that
can’t defend
itself is not a state. Its territory will be open to invasion
whenever Israel
chooses. A state in which candidates for election need to be
approved by
someone other than its electors Is not a democracy. Excluding
Hamas means that
Israel will vet the candidates. The last time there was a
Palestinian election,
20 years ago, Israel
arrested
25% of the representatives elected.
In recognising a non-existent Palestine,
Australia and other
“like minded” states are offering to Palestinians the empty hope
that someday,
perhaps, somehow, they will get something called a state, that
can’t defend
itself and needs someone else’s approval of its government.
I say that this is an empty hope, because
Israel will never
permit a Palestinian state to come into existence under any
circumstances. Mr
Netanyahu explained
why many years ago and many times since. His reasons are in
fact convincing.
They boil down to this: The former League of Nations Mandated
Palestine in
total is a small area. If besides Israel another, hostile, state
is crammed
into the same area, Israel will not survive. Hence Netanyahu's
2002 statement
"Not today, not tomorrow, not ever". On this matter
Netanyahu still speaks for Israel. The people who may replace
Netanyahu in the
coming election (Eisenkot, Bennet and Lapid) are as much opposed
as he is to
the existence of any Palestinian state. So are most Israeli
electors. According
to (June 2025) opinion
polls, only about one fifth of Jewish Israelis support a
“two-state-solution”.
So much for the two-state solution: it won't
happen. Now for
the one state. Given the very strong opposition of israelis to a
Palestinian
state, you might ask how could a single state work. I must admit
that it might
not work. Perhaps israelis and Arabs hate one another so much that
they can
never live together under any circumstances. We might have said
that of black
and white South Africans, or Catholic and Protestant Irish. To
everyone’s
surprise, anyway to my surprise, the conflicts in South Africa and
Ulster seem
to be over, at least for the time being. I was also surprised when
the Iron
Curtain came down. Good things do sometimes happen.
But if a single multicultural state won’t work,
then two
states entangled with one another won’t work either, as Netanyahu
said. And in
each of those states there would be an ethnic minority
corresponding to the
majority in the other state: ethnicities can never be cleanly
separated. In
Israel currently one fifth of the electorate are not Jewish. After
such
extensive Jewish settlement in the West Bank, any Palestinian
state, unless
it’s like a Swiss cheese, will contain many Jewish residents. Even
with a “two
state” solution, Jews and non-Jews will have to live
together.
And I think there is clearly a better chance of
that if
attempts at ethnic segregation are abandoned, if there is a new
start in an
attempt to build a single just, peaceful and genuinely democratic
state which
would have the support of the rest of the world.
https://johnkilcullen.net/recognition.html
John Kilcullen
11 October 2026