Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

Series in Search of a Solution

“For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers — for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel’s founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.”

That was President Obama, speaking on June 4 of last year. But it could have been any number of leaders in the last decade, pointing to the utter logic of resolving the wrenching stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians by ensuring that each people has its own, secure state.

Achieving a two-state solution — the official goal of the American, Israeli and Palestinian governments — is perhaps the most salient policy issue before the Jewish world today. And more than a matter of policy, it goes to the heart of Israel’s challenge, not just for sheer survival, but the challenge of deciding the character and potential of the Jewish state.

That is why the Forward will devote considerable resources over the next few months to exploring the viability of this policy, the roadblocks and alternatives, the shifts in culture and perspective that will be necessary to achieve a breakthrough. We begin with Nathan Jeffay’s comprehensive survey from the ground, accompanied by illuminating maps created by Kurt Hoffman and the Forward staff, all of which will be followed by more stories, analyses and opinion. Like the people in that sacred, troubled region, we don’t know yet where it will end.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.