Hold these two contradictory thoughts in your head simultaneously:

#1: The two state solution is dead.

#2: Only two states for two peoples will bring peace.

Listen to Palestinians* for why #1 is right. Then listen to who is or used to be the Israeli peace camp to hear what must happen to make the #2 right. Then you’ll understand the vast cognitive asymmetry between the two.

Corey Gil-Shuster’s The Ask Project, which poses viewers’ unedited questions to ordinary Palestinians and Israelis in unscripted and unedited videos, uncovers this asymmetry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4iGFT9Yl9o&t=13s

Changing these Palestinians' minds must precede statehood. With a Masters in Conflict Studies, this Canadian-Israeli Jewish atheist points to Palestinian collectivist conformity at the heart of this cognitive asymmetry— the collectivist “party line” that governs the Arab world’s tribal politics:

“noted similarities between Israelis and Palestinians when asking them questions, but also noted several key differences between the two peoples. When interviewing Palestinians, “I don’t always know if they are telling the truth because they are very aware of what their society and family may say. So there’s sort of a party line…. I don’t think they drastically disagree with it, they just might have slightly different ideas,” he stated. With Israeli Jews, “I don’t think they are changing their answers to look good. They don’t care what anybody thinks. Nobody ever said anything different when I put down the camera.”

Gil-Shuster’s Ask Project gets us to the heart of which party denies more essential facts neither side can change:

Neither Israeli Jews nor the Palestinians are going anywhere, despite what Hamas, Fatah, most Palestinians, Ben Gvir and Smotrich say.

They’re doomed to live together in this tiny strip that’s been a corridor for giant invading empires for more than 3000 years.

One party to the conflict belongs to the vast ethnic and linguistic majority that’s dominated the Middle East from Morocco to Persia since the 7th century.

The other knows its destiny is to live as a tiny minority — a minuscule Middle Eastern Jewish island in a vast Arab and Muslim sea.

In practical, though not historical terms, both are indigenous to the land they both claim.

https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/1-the-two-state-solution-is-dead-2166cbfe7196