Why a Two-State Solution is Within Reach

Because there is no way around it now

Shankar Narayan
7 min readOct 26, 2023

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The number 2 comes immediately after number 1 (Licensed Image)

I don’t know how long it has been, but the first time I heard the term ‘two-state solution’ for the Israel-Palestine conflict, I did not understand what it meant. There is Israel, and there is Palestine, so what in the heck is ‘two states,’ when there are already two states?

It took me a while to understand that neither side is fully ready to accept the right of the other side to exist. The rulers of Palestine do it by refusing to accept Israel’s right to exist, while Israel does it by controlling Palestine, either through an economic blockade or through settlements.

We can go round and round over this, debating who did what and which side is more right than the other. But what is the point? This is where we are today, and this is where we have been for many decades. So, in a nutshell of oversimplification, a two-state solution will settle the borders of both states while getting both sides to accept the existence of the other side

Why do I believe it’s doable now when it seemed impossible for so long? To get that, let’s first dig into why the two-state solution never made it out of that seemingly endless tunnel of darkness.

It may sound far-fetched to say peace is possible when we just about to start a war. But…

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Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.