Discordant Views on Our Grassroots Jewish Street – Choose!
#1332 July 26, 2026
My friend Stu and I had quite a back-and-forth on his website this week over an issue of great concern to us Jews in America. Weigh in your mind and choose between our views.
Discordant Views on Our Grassroots Jewish Street – Choose!
My good friend Stu Bykofsky (ok, I confess at least one of my good friends is a journalist) ran a two-part posting this week begetting a comment-reply-reply-reply… between him and me, to which I invite your attention on stubykofsky.com, at the foot of his essay “Part 2: A 23-state proposal for Mideast peace.” More than that, I’d have you, as a grassroots American Jew, weigh in your mind and choose between our discordant views on an issue crucial to Israel and us: Can/should Israel stand up to worldwide demand for “a Palestinian state” inside the land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan?
Stu’s posting is about Rahm Emanuel’s speech in Israel earlier this month in which he touted a much media-publicized “23-state solution” to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs.
Jonathan Tobin (JNS, 7/9/26, Rahm Emanuel and the Persistent Delusion of Failed Policies), with whom I agree, cynically characterized Rahm’s plan as one in which the 21 Arab states would “cajole the Palestinian Arabs to make peace.” Emanuel warned “Israel has never been so isolated” as a result of its conduct in Gaza and “the West Bank,” and must change its ways and seek compromise with Palestinian Arabs. Stu references efforts here in America and mention by Netanyahu himself to wean Israel off of American aid, and concludes “Should the 23-state plan be achieved, Israel’s need for arms would diminish.”
By me, Tobin’s article’s subhead rightly sums up Emanuel’s plan:
“The veteran politician foolishly thinks that he can carve out a middle ground for 2028 between antisemitism and ‘blind’ support for Israel by recycling the two-state solution.”
But the choice I would have you, my fellow U.S. Jewish grassrootsniks, weigh in your minds is not over Emanuel’s “23-state solution,” but between Stu and me over “the two-state solution,” which Stu sees as inevitable, whether he likes that or not. I referenced an alternative in my comments to his posting on his website, which Stu regards as less than realistic. Choose between us.
I commented that while I’m against a sovereign Arab state inside the land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan, Palestinian Arabs could have areas of internal autonomy in Judea-Samaria, under Israeli sovereignty and security control. Stu countered
“NO ONE [capitalization original] is going to accept Pal ‘autonomy’ under Israeli sovereignty. That is a pipe dream.”
I replied to that:
“Rabin decades ago called for Palestinian Arab autonomy in Judea-Samaria to be ‘less than a state,’ which Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ called for, and Amb. Friedman then and now, so I’ve got some VIP company in my ‘pipe dream.’”
Stu replied:
“No matter how many suck the pipe, it remains a dream.”
I called a truce between us at that point, but in retrospect I should have remembered Herzl: “If you will it, it is no dream.”
And that is the point I’d drive home to you Gentle Readers this week. Emanuel is right in this: There are a few countries with a modicum of rachmones for it, but Israel IS suffering widespread international isolation. It needs, deserves, the outspoken support of every Jew in America, and specifically so against “the two-state solution.”
Last week I listed four bases of our claim to our Jewish people’s Israel homeland – it’s historically (three-millennia presence), legally (Palestine Mandate with its Jewish national home at least west of the Jordan), equitably (Pal Arab majority in judenrein Jordan sitting on three-quarters of Mandated Palestine), indispensably (Ingathering of persecuted Exiles) OURs.
But this week, let me add a fifth homeland basis – indivisibly. There are no natural geographical boundaries inside Palestine west of the River, nothing remotely comparable to the Jordan Valley backed by the central ridge. Read this week about the Palestinian Arab terrorism in Judea-Samaria. E.g., World Israel News, today, 7/26/26, Israel Fears Outbreak of New Intifada in Judea and Samaria. You want a sovereign Arab state there?
Here’s my first comment to Stu’s “23-state solution” posting this week, and I’ll rest on that:
“Israel is not committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza. Civilian-to-military casualty ratio is unprecedently low. And it is not using dogs to rape Palestinian Arab prisoners. Nor is it required to feed and care for an enemy sworn to destroy it, including also the Palestinian Authority, with its history of Pay-for-Slay of Israeli civilians. Palestinian Arabs are the majority population of judenrein Jordan, sitting on three-quarters of Mandated Palestine, so they have an in-Palestine Palestinian Arab homeland. Historic Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria belong to Israel, as Speaker Johnson accurately put it. There are no natural boundaries inside the narrow land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan. There’s no room or need for a second Palestinian Arab in-Palestine homeland, this one inside the land of Israel west of the Jordan. It would fatally turn our people’s Jewish national home, with its ability to Ingather persecuted Jewish exiles, into a militarily indefensible Jewishly meaningless Jewish national ghetto. Been there. No thanks. Israel will bet the kibbutz on it.”
Ben-Gurion called on us “Jews of the World” [i.e., principally Jews of the United States] to “stand by Israel in the great struggle for fulfillment of the Dream of Generations” for our homeland’s sovereign redemption. As Hillel would have appended: “And if not now, when?”
ERNEST KRAUS: Feeding the alligator in the hope to be last eaten is not a good action plan.
No to 2 states. Emanuel is a fool.
LOUIS N. MARKS: Judea and Samaria is the heartland of Biblical Israel. When Jordan occupied it after the truce, not an agreed peace, it was not a separate Palestinian state. Jordan is Palestine with a Hashemite king. 80% of Jordan are Palestinians . Most of Jordan is unoccupied. There is plenty of room there for the so-called Palestinians. The Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria are pawns of nefarious politicians who are intent on continuing to violate the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1920 San Remo conference, and the 1922 League of Nations resolution. After the 1922 event, Winston Churchill drew a Green line down the Jordan River to the Dead Sea and gave everything to the east to Jordan, a state that never previously existed. The inhabitants were/are Arabs from Arabia. The Jews are from Judea and Samaria for the last 3500 years. The Jews have nonetheless proved that Arabs, whether Muslim, Christian or Druze, are welcome to live in peace in Israel, and 2 million of them currently do so.
Under current facts, there will be no resolution. The Jews cannot agree to anything on paper until the so-called Palestinian population teaches it next generation how to live in peace and reject Islamic principles that make such peace impossible.
Sadly, not in our lifetime. Hopefully, our children and grandchildren understand what we understand.
DAN BACINE: Several comments:
1. Your objectively ideal solution is not going to happen, because the Palestinian Arabs won’t agree.
2. Rahm Emmanuel said what he said because he wants to run for president. To get the nomination he needs to navigate through difficult waters. His stated position on Israel was his Sister Souljah moment to satisfy the so-called progressive wing. Give him a break.
3. A friend of mine in New York, a Catholic Republican who’s a Flyers fan (long story) in his mid 50’s, sent me this:
One of my Brooklyn hockey guys messaged me and another teammate this morning, saying how much he liked Mamdani’s Netanyahu comments. Here’s (below) what I wrote back on the spot…
Genocide implies a plan to extinguish a people which is not the case here. Israel was attacked on 10/7/23 with babies being put in ovens. Said attack only happened because Israel LEFT Gaza in 2005, giving Iran-funded Hamas a safe haven to plan this slaughter. If Netanyahu’s a war criminal, then, so were Truman and Churchill for the countless more Japanese and German civilians whose deaths they knowingly ordered in WW2. Arafat missed his chance in 2000 when Israel’s Barak gave him just about everything he asked for at Camp David but he walked away. As Bill Maher says, “the Palestinians never miss a chance to miss a chance.” Hamas throws gays off buildings while Muslim Israelis vote in elections there. I’m largely with Netanyahu on this one and would even volunteer as part of a human chain to defend him when he’s here in September. I’m a non-observant Catholic Zionist, you can say. But let’s continue this discussion in person. Politics by typing can ruin friendships.
ME (Jerry): Hi, Dan. Thanks for these comments. My aim is to include on the site grassroots U.S. Jews’ arguments on both sides of issues confronting us, of which “the two-state solution” is huge. As for your points:
[1] So the “less than a state” plan of Rabin, Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ and Amb. Friedman’s mod to it in his second book “is not going to happen, because the Palestinian Arabs won’t agree”? Their veto is no stronger than Israelis, whose viable Jewish homeland “the two-state solution” (or a “binational state”) would devastate. I’m not wild about even autonomous areas for Palestinian Arabs in Judea-Samaria, given their majority in judenrein Jordan on 3/4 of Mandated Palestine, but that’s a solution our people’s Jewish homeland can maybe live with.
[2] Re Emanuel’s “23-state solution,”, I agree with Tobin it’s a variation of “two-states.” So I oppose it as such. ZOA’s Mort Klein is right that American Jews who support “the two-state solution” are not taking a pro-Israel position.
[3] Your New York Catholic Republican Flyer fan’s response to his teammate who praised Mamdani’s comments on Netanyahu is great. Counting me, it’s good you have at least two Republican friends.
BRUCE SLOAN: Arafat wanted to squeeze the Jews in Yesha so they would want to leave. Time to return the favor.
ZERO Fakestinians west of the Jordan. As Hussein said: Jordan is Palestine.
ME (Jerry): Thanks for this, Bruce. I’d just amend Hussein’s statement to “Jordan is ARAB Palestine.” The names “Palestine” and “Palestinian” shouldn’t be shunned by Jews. There’s Jewish equity in them, as Begin pointed out in his Foreword to the 2d edition of Katz’s “Battleground: Face & Fantasy in Palestine.” Back in Mandate days, Jews were Palestinians.
BRUCE: Hi Jerry,
Thank you.
Always good to read your emails.
HENRY FRANK: I’m with you. IDF is not committing genocide. But a 2-state solution would be committing suicide, which I understand is against Jewish Law
STU BYKOFSKY:
I will be interested in readers response.
And if the Sioux use your points to regain their historical homeland
ME (Jerry): Hi, Stu. I too am interested in readers’ response. In addition to readers who key in comments on-line, I quickly post those by email to me, per my statement at the foot of my weekly email. (This week, I think you’ll like Dan Bacine’s.)
I want my website visitors to hear both sides. The very front page of my book “Here & Now: U.S. Jews and the Issues Confronting Us,” which you kindly reviewed, says: “It doesn’t matter whether you agree with these “best” of a conservative grassroots U.S. Jew’s weekly analyses over a Quarter Century. They’ll make you think about issues confronting us from Anti-Israel Media Bias to Zionism, and that matters a lot.” And one of the very first postings on my website was the “debate” between you and me on “two-states.” I hope naturally that grassroots US Jews who weigh the arguments on both sides of “the two-state solution” will come away concluding (along with ZOA’s Mort Klein and eg me) that favoring it (or by me even acquiescing in it) is NOT a pro-Israel position. I agree with the Israeli newspaper that called “two-states” “Unthinkable.” But I’d have our grassroots think about it and, optimist that I am, eventually come around.
Unlike the American Indians, we Jews never gave up our land of Israel homeland claim. As historian Parkes wrote in “Whose Land,” our continuous post-biblical tenacious homeland presence, in spite of every discouragement, wrote today’s Israelis’ “real title deeds.” And Israel’s the land’s NEXT native state after Roman-destroyed Jewish Judaea. (I wrote a book, “Israel 3000 Years,” documenting that presence and continual including pre-Zionist return.)