1. With all due respect to @PeterBeinart, calling for one state for Israelis and Palestinians is neither original, nor a remotely viable solution to this long-running conflict. It's a disaster in the making for Israelis, the Jewish people, Palestinians, and US interests.

2. His proposal means the elimination of the very purpose of Zionism: the sovereignty in their homeland that the Jewish people deserve and history proved repeatedly they suffered grievously without. It would be an immense historical tragedy.

3. It also fails to answer the need and right of the Palestinian people for independence and statehood in their homeland. Palestinian leaders have often undermined this cause by rejecting negotiations and supporting terror. But failing to fulfill it is another huge tragedy.

4. Policies & positions by Israelis, Palestinians, Americans & others that perpetuate a lousy status quo, or threaten to worsen it by moving toward a binational state via annexation, do a tremendous disservice to the legitimate rights of both peoples (& US interests, to boot).

5. Those who are egging things on in that direction today by pushing unilateral Israeli annexation are no less wedded to a historical tragedy than Beinart is. Both lead inexorably toward Israel no longer being a Jewish and democratic state.

6. Hard as it is (and certainly impossible under the current leaders), keeping 2 states alive &viable for when different leaders can try again is the only hope of an end to the conflict and the fulfillment of the needs of both sides. All one state alternatives are far, far worse.

7. While one democratic state sounds superficially appealing to some American ears, the reality would be a highly impractical perpetuation of the conflict within one state, a society deeply riven, and nearly inevitably, far worse violence. The US would lose a key partner.

8. The  @IsraelPolicy4m study by @ShiraEfron and @EvanGottesman on alternatives to 2SS analyzed a version of Beinart's plan, and numerous others. It scored as bad as any of them on delivering security, fulfilling rights, regional stability, US interests.  https://israelpolicyforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/StudyFinal022520.pdf

9. Some younger Palestinians show interest in this idea, having given up on two states, perhaps understandable, but a worrying trend. But overall support on both sides is thin. Large majorities do not see it as answering their needs.

10. It would be awful in surprising ways. Imagine a parliamentary debate on the right of return of Palestinians, or curtailing the right of Jews. A society torn apart. Or imagine the merging of the IDF and PA security forces into one military. Who thinks that will work out well?

11. In 2013, I advised then Sec. Kerry that we needed to study non-two-state outcomes to prepare for protecting US interests in case we end up in one. Maybe to try to identify the least bad alternative (though they are all bad). I still believe that.

12. But analyzing them -- even preparing contingencies for them -- is one thing. Dressing them up, as Beinart does, as preferable to still striving for two states, is utopian nonsense. End