Joe Biden should drop support for Israel and alternative plan is better than two-state solution

Following the catastrophic war in Gaza and Hamas’ shocking October 7 attack on Israel, there is a fresh recognition that the historic status quo of Israel “managing the conflict” is no longer an option.

Regardless of its merits, and whatever chances for success it may have previously had, the death of the Oslo Peace Process in 2000 left a massive void where once there was an imaginable path toward a more just future. But like any challenge to powerful oppression, in this case Israel’s over Palestinians, just reaching the point where a viable alternative plan to the two-state solution might be seriously considered will require sufficient pressure.

There is no shortage of proposals and visions for the future of the region – two states, one state, or a confederation of some kind – of what a just and lasting resolution might look like in the region, where Israel has effective sovereignty over seven million Palestinians and seven million Israelis.

Even before the events of October 7, a growing number of Israelis were starting to see the connection between apartheid and the troubling authoritarianism of the Netanyahu government. On October 7, a different realisation struck many Israelis in a tragic way: that it’s simply impossible to go back to occupation, apartheid and siege, while enjoying the relative quiet and safety they had come to expect. Combined with the uncertainty of what comes next, the realisation that change must occur creates an opportunity.

In its current format, the two-state solution model is no longer viable. Yet, the main obstacle in the US revising its position and support for Israel and the two-state solution remains: the massive resources of pro-Israel lobbying groups that support elected US officials who remain blindly allied with the Israeli government.

Instead, an alternative peace plan is required. One such plan that my colleague, Michael Omer-Man, and I have been designing as part of our work with Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) consists of ensuring both Israelis and Palestinians can determine democratically how they wish to organise their governance, ending the Israeli occupation of Gaza and its apartheid rule over Palestine, and establishing a transitional government tasked with transforming the existing regime to one based on principles of equal rights.

We call our plan the Blueprint. The first and most important initial step for ending ongoing human rights violations, will create the conditions where all people – Israeli, Palestinian, Bedouin, Druze, Armenian, and others – may freely decide whether the lands should be divided formally into different states, merged into a single state, or conjoined in some other configuration like the cantons of Switzerland.

The Blueprint provides a detailed three-year-plan for how this initial phase of transformation can take place. This includes establishing a single civilian legal system; ending abusive military rule and emergency and counter-terrorism laws over Palestinian territories; allowing all people under Israeli rule to vote and have equal rights, representation in an interim government and freedom of movement; and the creation of a new Israeli and Palestinian security force with a new security doctrine.