ISRAEL'S ONE STATE SOLUTION

John Kerry gave what I thought was a very nice hour plus rebuttal to Netenyahu's claim that the U.S. was the organizer of the Security Council's resolution on settlements in the West bank.  Though  it seems clear to me, Matthew Yglesias gives a very nice summary, but he doesn't seem to understand why Kerry gave the speech.  Don't expect Netenyahu, who seems to be Prime Minister for life, to give thanks for all the aid the US. has given Israel.  We need to remember there is no doubt that Israel has a right to exist as it was formed by the UN in 1948 so it is proper for the U.S. to help assure their existence.  So we need to keep our balance with Israel in spite of Netenyahu.

With the country in the middle of an essentially unprecedented political crisis, there's a kind of eerie normalcy to the speech on Israel and Palestine that John Kerry delivered Wednesday afternoon. The remarks themselves were unusually harsh, as was the United Nations resolution on Israeli settlements last week that the administration allowed through. But US presidents and secretaries of state have been talking about the issue for literally decades without much changing.*

Kerry says at one point that Israel can have a one state solution andit can either be a Jewish state or a democratic state but not both. 

 I'm not sure a two-state solution has ever been in the cards since the 1967 war. in which Israel captured the West Bank after being attacked  See West  Bank Fiasco **  But there may be reasons that Israel doesn't want to formally annex the West Bank.  There are an estimated 1,658,000 Arabs in Israel  as of 2013  (roughly 20% of the population of Israel) of which many have Israel citizenship and can run for the Knesset. and there usually is one or more elected  Many others have refused citizenship so are permanent residents and can run in local elections but not the Knesset.***  If Israel doesn't formally annex the West Bank, then they don't have to give the Arabs an option of becoming Israel citizens and can remain third class occupants.

 As of July 2015 it has an estimated population of 2,785,366 Palestinians,^[3] and approximately 371,000 Israel Settlers. ^[3] and approximately another 212,00 Jewish Israelis in East Jerusalem.**** Not al Arabs are Muslims and about 9% of the Israel population is Christians.****
 If the West Bank is formally annexed, the Palestinian population will be something like 45% of the Israel population.  I suspect that having such a large population of Arabs in Israel is a scary prospect to them.  Thus Israel may be happy to leave the West Bank as an informal annexation.    And as I have said elsewhere, the West Bank gives Israel importantdefensive qualities.


* http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/29/kerrys-bombshell-israel-speech-is-one-of-the-most-puzzling-things-i-have-seen-in-politics-commentary.html
 ** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/12/west-bank-fiasco.html
 *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel
**** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bank \
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Christians