Binyamin Netanyahu’s argument about Jerusalem refusing to acknowledge there’s even such a thing called East Jerusalem make no mistake is how he thinks of all of Palestine. It’s all Israel as far as he’s concerned and if he can avoid, you know, making the decisions necessary for a two-state process he will and lets blame the United States which has had what I can only politely put as an unbalanced policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for, you know, decades. All of this is to say that we are approaching a period very soon as every demographer will tell you in which Palestinians are going to outnumber Israelis; in which there will be more Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea which means that the whole concept of a Jewish majority state will cease to exist which means that Israel is going to have to make a very serious decision quite soon; which is either pour all of its efforts into building a stable economically viable Palestinian state, or cease to exist. Those are its two choices because if there isn’t a Palestine in the next two years there will not be an Israel in the next twenty, thirty years or, and this is what I have been advocating since I’ve retuned, it’s not a new concept a lot of people have been talking about it it’s still a very fringe idea though it is gaining popularity not just in Israel- Palestine but outside as well, which is that both sides come to the realization that the inevitable one-state solution is what we’re all moving towards anyway; a bi-national state in which Israelis and Palestinians share a single territory and which there’s a power sharing agreement that nonetheless, you know, with institutions meant preserve semi-autonomy and, you know, the peculiar religious and cultural distinctions of the two peoples but, you know, we’re already in a position in which we have two people living in one state. Make no mistake there is, you know, were not talking…when we talk about the difference between Israel and Palestine, sometimes we act as though we’re talking about the difference between you know, France and Spain; we’re not!
Even if we were to say let’s say tomorrow there was a two-state solution Israel, Palestine living side by side, we’re still not talking about the difference between you know, France and Spain or France and Germany we’re talking at most about the difference between Ontario and Quebec. That’s what we’re talking about. This is, you know, two people who share a single currency, a single market, a single economic and political ecosystem, yes it’s dominated by Israel. They share single resources, yes it’s dominated by Israel but it’s nevertheless, you know, one land being shared by two peoples already and since I don’t see us coming anytime soon to a two-state solution, certainly not with the government that’s in charge of Israel right now, then the, sort of, inevitable one-state solution is where we are headed anyway. My argument is let’s start planning for it now because it’s going to happen whether we like it or not.
Interviewer 1: Yes.
Interviewer 4: [1B] I work for the IMF and I’m also a big fan much like Ilhan. It’s an absolute treat, thank you for coming here and I’m going to give you the opportunity to talk about Turkey which I gathered that you like to by saying that I’m not comfortable at all with you putting Turkey in the same sentence with various groups in Lebanon and Palestine because much as I’m sure you know the AK Party actually is the last part of a political genetic strain that goes back actually to the fifty’s may be the late forty’s–
Interviewee: That’s right.