I favour a one state solution.

But it would be different and not very much like the "Isratine" solutions that float around. And I think that such one state solutions would solve many problems in the middle east and North Africa.

Basically, the one state solution I envision, not just for Israel but for other countries in the region too, would be a nation state for a local people that simply has a large minority (or even a majority) of Arab nationals.

In the case of Israel, the country would be as the Zionists originally envisioned: a Jewish state, with a Jewish national identity, and Jewish and Arab citizens with equal rights and two official languages Hebrew and Arabic, with Hebrew being the "national language" as well. And the citizens of the country should be loyal to THEIR COUNTRY and not cling to some Arab empire they want to found with no regard to non-Arab population groups.

Heck, it worked in Germany with the German-speaking mostly Catholic south and the (originally) Dutch-speaking mostly Protestant north. It worked so well, few people even know that northern Germany has traditionally more in common with the Netherlands than with Bavaria or Saxony. I don't see why it couldn't work with Jews and Arabs in Israel.

And I think the same solution could be applied to the other troubled countries too:

North-Africa should become a federation of bi-national Imazighen (Berber) and Arab states and both languages (Tamazight and Arabic) should be official.

Lebanon could remember its Phoenician roots and possibly try to revive Phoenician just like Israel revived Hebrew. (They could use much of the same techniques and even materials as the languages are so similar.)

Syria must become a nation state for Aramaeans. It will have an Arab majority, but Aramaic should become an official language.

And the same solution might work in Iraq with Kurds, Assyrians, and Arabs. (Assyrians speak Aramaic, but for reasons of national pride they could declare ancient Akkadian a national language of Iraq.)

I am all for such a one state solution. And apart from a general mistrust towards an Arab population that promised extermination of all Jews if they get the chance, I doubt Israelis have a general problem with such a solution.

Ultimately this solution would even accommodate the Arab refugees as they could return to their homes (in the Jewish state, where they will learn Hebrew). When their ancestors moved into the region over a thousand years ago they KNEW they were moving into the Jewish home land. So why not live in it now?

This solution is close to the solution originally envisioned by Weizmann and Emir Faisal. So why not simply do what two smart men tried to do?

But for this to happen the Arabs HAVE to change their attitude toward non-Arab peoples. The onus is on the Arabs. It is they who very clearly have a problem with Berbers, Sudanese African tribes, Jews, Assyrians, Kurds, Syrian Christians etc.. The Arab-Israeli conflict does not stand in isolation. It is just one of many Arab conflicts.

Arab nationalism will have to learn that the world is not an Arab proto-empire waiting to be ruled by Arab rulers and that the middle east is not Arab. And Muslim fundamentalism, very popular among Arabs, will have to prove itself or shut up. Just being able to murder more people than others is not a basis for a claim to power, not if the others are ultimately stronger anyway.

And there will remain Arab nation states too; in Arabia.

And if everything were perfect, Saudi-Arabia would return the land it stole from the Hashemites. Then we'd be back where we could have been if things hadn't gone horribly wrong after 1919.

Details would have to be worked out.

For example, Israel and Transjordan could form a federation and Israeli Arabs could have Jordanian citizenship rather than Israeli, to ensure that the Jewish vote remains useful. Both nations, Jews and Arabs, would then be free to live and work in either part of the federation and vote in elections in one of the two states.