Increasingly, despite its early military and political successes, Israel cannot for long endure as a colonial project.
It must choose between wars – and destruction – or transition to a state for all its peoples.
In order to firmly secure its existence – as firmly as that is possible for any state – a settler state has to overcome three challenges.
It has to solve the native problem; break away from its mother country; and gain the recognition of neighboring states and peoples.
It can be shown that Israel has not met any of these conditions.
Consider Israel’s native problem. In 1948, in the months before and after its creation, Israel appeared to have solved its native problem in one fell swoop.
It had expelled 80 percent of the Palestinians from the territories it had conquered.
In addition, with the rapid influx of Arab Jews, Palestinians were soon reduced to less than ten percent of Israel’s population.
So, had Israel licked its native problem for good?
Not really.