Here is a scenario that most Americans and most Jews don't want to contemplate, but John Mersheimer's analysis in a recent speech deserves everyone's attention."The story I will tell is straightforward. Contrary to the wishes of the Obama administration and most Americans to include many American Jews Israel is not going to allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own in Gaza and the West Bank. Regrettably, the two-state solution is now a fantasy. Instead, those territories will be incorporated into a Greater Israel, which will be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa. Nevertheless, a Jewish apartheid state is not politically viable over the long term. In the end, it will become a democratic bi-national state, whose politics will be dominated by its Palestinian citizens. In other words, it will cease being a Jewish state, which will mean the end of the Zionist dream. Let me explain how I reached these conclusions."Available in audio, video, and transcript:http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/10418

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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