The edi­tors and essay­ists in this book attempt to break away from the old mod­el of the Mid­dle East and offer a new and refresh­ing look at poten­tial solu­tions to the Israeli Pales­tin­ian conflict.

One Land Two States: Israel and Pales­tine as Par­al­lel States is com­posed of eleven essays. Each essay deals with an essen­tial top­ic that must be addressed in cre­at­ing a two-state solu­tion. Top­ics include secu­ri­ty, the judi­cial process, juris­dic­tion, eco­nom­ics, reli­gion, and the issue of sovereignty.

The edi­tors and the authors empha­size that the old meth­ods of build­ing walls will not work. They stress time and again, in every essay, that the only way to a res­o­lu­tion is by tear­ing down walls, and in their stead, build­ing bridges and cre­at­ing dia­logue. One essay is even enti­tled ​“The Neces­si­ty For Think­ing Out­side of the Box.”

Con­trib­u­tors to this work come from across the polit­i­cal spec­trum and all over the world. There are Israelis and Arabs as well as Euro­peans and Amer­i­cans. The exper­tise of the authors spans mul­ti­ple fields and their insight, their analy­sis, and their approach make it obvi­ous to the read­er that these writ­ers are all striv­ing to find solu­tions to the cur­rent stale­mate in Pales­tin­ian – Israeli negotiations.

The prob­lem that is endem­ic in this sit­u­a­tion is that almost every one of these ideas has been tried over and over and has failed over and over again. Solv­ing this con­flict will require more than a dif­fer­ent approach or think­ing out of the box in order for Pales­tini­ans and Israelis to live togeth­er in mutu­al respect, recog­ni­tion, and cooperation.

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