Qadafi “Isratin” solution returns timidly

By Suleiman Jouda

The late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi believed in the theory of one state as a solution to the issue in Palestine, and he did not want his words on the subject to be distorted, so he issued a small book explaining why one state must be established, and how it could include the Palestinians and Israelis under the umbrella of one state?

When he published his book, he put the name of the proposed state on its cover, and chose the name “Isratin” for it, a name that takes the first half of the word Israel and the second half of the word Palestine, and forms one word from the two halves, and he sees it as an appropriate name for the new state.

At that time, Gaddafi added another title to the book, and the title was made up of two words, and the two words were as follows: The White Book.

Gaddafi's speech was not devoid of logic in its details, because he believed that the area of Palestine was too narrow to include two neighboring states, and that even if we assumed that two states were established over the entire area, they would not stop fighting, and the war would continue between them, and the war between them would not stop. Except to start over. Such was his assessment, and such was his thought and opinion.

It is no secret that the distance between the farthest point in the north of the land of Palestine and the farthest point in its south is around 470 kilometers, and the distance between the farthest point in its east and the farthest point in its west remains about 135 kilometers.

There was another problem in the Colonel’s estimation, and the problem, as he saw it, was that the establishment of two states would face a crisis in the ability to receive Palestinian refugees, who would have to return from abroad to live in the new Palestinian state if it was established, and the same crisis would exist in the case of the Hebrew state, If you think about receiving new Jews from abroad.

This, in short, was the opinion of Colonel Gaddafi, and this is what he lived to believe in and promoted at one stage of his life, but opinions were of course divided over the idea, and no one found anyone who strongly supported it and adopted it on both sides, so it remained recorded in the book that bore the name of its author on its cover, and the book remained where It is on the shelves with only a few pages.

When the attack of last October 7, carried out by the Hamas movement, occurred on the Israeli settlements, the situation between the Hebrew state and the Gaza Strip flared up and continues to do so, and with its flare-up, talk was renewed about the political horizon closed to the Palestinians, which was one of the motives behind it. Others were behind the attack that shook Israel.

There was renewed talk about the absence of political solutions to the issue, and about the need for them to come quickly, because in their absence, the conflict will continue to exist between the two parties, and violence will continue to return whenever it stops, and blood will continue to flow everywhere.

Abdel-Ilah Benkirane, Secretary-General of the Justice and Development Party in Morocco, took the initiative and said, a week after the attack and the war that followed, that there is no solution in his view except the solution of a single state that includes Muslims, Jews, and Christians over the entire area of Palestine. He added that its establishment is conditional on the cessation of injustice against every Palestinian, and that the war raging in the Gaza Strip could be a path after it stops to such a state, which is still just an idea that is repeated from time to time.

The idea comes this time from a Moroccan politician who was at the head of the government in Rabat for five years, and whose party was in power for ten years. It is a party known for its great sympathy with everything Palestinian, because it is a party that always describes itself as having an Islamic authority, and constantly says that those who classify it as The Brotherhood party is wrong, because it has nothing to do with the Brotherhood and they have no relationship with it at any level.

On the other hand, there remains the two-state solution, which the people of Palestine have always adhered to, and which remains the basis every time there is talk of a solution to the issue. When a joint Arab statement was issued by nine Arab countries on the 26th of last month, this solution was the solution approved in the eleventh and final item of the statement.

The Arabs' hand is still extended to the two-state solution, through the Arab Peace Initiative that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, may God have mercy on him, presented when he was Crown Prince to the Arab Summit held in Beirut in 2002.

If Ben Kiran describes the one-state solution as a practical and realistic solution, the question remains whether the “Isratin” solution is more realistic than the two-state solution? Another question: If the two-state solution has been on the table since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza on June 5, 1967, has the statute of limitations diminished its realism and the extent of its practicality as a solution on the ground?

Here we will find ourselves face to face with the famous Chinese proverb about a cat that is required to catch mice. The Chinese cut off the controversy surrounding its color, and said that color is not the issue, but rather the issue is its ability to catch every mouse it encounters on its path.

By analogy to what the Chinese proverb says, it is not important the name of the state that must be established, but what is important is its ability to provide a just solution to the people of the issue, because in the absence of a just solution, whether it is a one-state solution or two-state solution, violence will remain the title of this region of the world. the world.