Time Running Out For A Two-State Solution?

(CBS)  Getting a peace deal in the Middle East is such a priority to President Obama that his first foreign calls on his first day in office were to Arab and Israeli leaders. And on day two, the president made former Senator George Mitchell his special envoy for Middle East peace. Mr. Obama wants to shore up the ceasefire in Gaza, but a lasting peace really depends on the West Bank where Palestinians had hoped to create their state. The problem is, even before Israel invaded Gaza, a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians had concluded that peace between them was no longer possible, that history had passed it by. For peace to have a chance, Israel would have to withdraw from the West Bank, which would then become the Palestinian state.

It's known as the "two-state" solution. But, while negotiations have been going on for 15 years, hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers have moved in to occupy the West Bank. Palestinians say they can't have a state with Israeli settlers all over it, which the settlers say is precisely the idea.

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Daniella Weiss moved from Israel to the West Bank 33 years ago. She has been the mayor of a large settlement.

"I think that settlements prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel. This is the goal. And this is the reality," Weiss told 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon.

Though settlers and Palestinians don't agree on anything, most do agree now that a peace deal has been overtaken by events.

"While my heart still wants to believe that the two-state solution is possible, my brain keeps telling me the opposite because of what I see in terms of the building of settlements. So, these settlers are destroying the potential peace for both people that would have been created if we had a two-state solution," Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, once a former candidate for Palestinian president, told Simon.

And he told 60 Minutes Israel's invasion of Gaza - all the death and destruction in response to rockets from Hamas - convinces him that Israel does not want a two-state solution. "My heart is deeply broken, and I am very worried that what Israel has done has furthered us much further from the possibility of [a] two-state solution."

Palestinians had hoped to establish their state on the West Bank, an area the size of Delaware. But Israelis have split it up with scores of settlements, and hundreds of miles of new highways that only settlers can use. Palestinians have to drive - or ride - on the older roads.

When they want to travel from one town to another, they have to submit to humiliating delays at checkpoints and roadblocks. There are more than 600 of them on the West Bank.

Asked why there are so many checkpoints, Dr. Barghouti said, "I think the main goal is to fragment the West Bank. Maybe a little bit of them can be justified because they say it's for security. But I think the vast majority of them are basically to block the movement of people from one place to another."

Here's how they block Barghouti: he was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Jerusalem and worked in a hospital there for 14 years. Four years ago he moved to a town just 10 miles away, but now, because he no longer lives in Jerusalem, he can't get back in - ever.

He says he can't get a permit to go. "I asked for a permit to go to Jerusalem during the last year, the last years about 16 times. And 16 times they were rejected. Like most Palestinians, I don't have a permit to go to the city I was born in, to the city I used to work in, to the city where my sister lives."

What he's up against are scores of Israeli settlements dominating the lowlands like crusader fortresses. Many are little cities, and none of them existed 40 years ago. The Israelis always take the high ground, sometimes the hills, and sometimes the homes. And sometimes Arabs are occupied inside their own homes.

One house for example is the highest house on the highest hill overlooking the town of Nablus. 60 Minutes learned that Israeli soldiers often corral the four families who live there and take over the house to monitor movement down below.

Simon and the 60 Minutes team went to an apartment owned by a Mr. Nassif. That morning, Israeli soldiers had apparently entered the apartment, without notice, and remained there when Simon knocked on the door.

"We cannot speak with you, there are soldiers," Nassif told Simon. "We are in prison here."

Asked what was happening, Nassif says, "They are keeping us here and the soldiers are upstairs, we cannot move. We cannot speak with you."

Nassif said he couldn't leave the house and didn't know how long he'd have to stay in place. Asked if they were paying him any money, he told Simon, "You are kidding?"

Abdul Nassif, a bank manager said he had to get to his bank to open the safe, but one of the soldiers wouldn't let him go. He told 60 Minutes whenever the soldiers come they wake everybody up, and herd them into a kitchen for hours while soldiers sleep in their beds. They can't leave or use the phone, or let 60 Minutes in.

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[Gordon_80]

Its about time someone told the other story. there are always two stories, both must always be told to find the truth.

[Gordon_80]

Its about time someone told the other story. there are always two stories, both must always be told to find the truth.

[compromisepeople]

Most people equate supporting Israel to Liberal Media bias, but I think that any American who supported Bush's efforts spread Democracy in the Middle East should support Israel, the only Democratic country there, to lead by example. No, they are not perfect, but they are the only country with women's rights, human rights, and even gay rights and we should help them defend that. The only solution is to follow through with Bush's Road Map to peace in which there is a two-state solution allowing the Palestinians Gaza and the West Bank, with Jerusalem as a neutral international city. The Palestinians will have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and the Israelis will have to recognize Palestine's right to exist as a state. Livni would have continued this process.

[waynemcl]

Thanks for your courage broadcasting a more balanced article than usual media. What you report is similar to what I saw in the West Bank when I visited in May. No doubt you are receiving a virulent response from pro-Israeli media manipulators. That itself may be worthy of an article.

[elliek3]

Bravo to Bob Simon and 60 Minutes for an honest look at the prospects for peace in the Middle East! They told a side of the story that U.S. audiences are almost never allowed to hear. Don''t let the right-wingers silence you! Peace in the Middle East is too important to the entire planet to let only the Israeli side of the story be heard. The Palestinians also have their story, and it is just as compelling as the Israelis''. As our mothers taught all of us, two wrongs never make a right. The Holocaust was wrong and so was al-Nakba, the catastrophe. The Palestinians desperately need Israel and the U.S. to acknowledge their right to exist and live in peace.

[wolfgangwils]

In 30 years when the Palestinian birthrate kicks in and the star of David morphs into a swastika in order to subdue that imbalance, perhaps then, the American government will finally recognize the Israeli settlers and government for the hateful and violent entities they truly are, and step back and let them reap what they have sown

[cbsnanajune]

Mr. Foxman thinks Bob Simon''s reporting of actual facts in Israel''s occupation of the West Bank is "anti-Israel." But it is not the reporting that is "anti-Israel;" it is the facts on the ground. You know Israel is committing war crimes when they won''t allow reporters into Gaza. I am really tired of this constant censorship by Israel, trying to cover up the horrific nature of the reality of life under Israeli occupation.
Be true to journalistic ethics; keep on reporting the truth. And tell Foxman to fix the reality if he doesn''t want it to look "anti-Israel."

[peteskitoo]

BBC has just reported that Israel has been hiding information about massive illegal settlement building activity entitled "Israel ''hides settlements data''"
It goes on to say that "The Israeli defence ministry has concealed information about the extent of illegal settlement-building in the West Bank, a leading [Israeli] newspaper reports."

(see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7861076.stm)

This is exactly the kind of thing that Bob Simon''s report shows.

[robinwolfe-2009]

Thanks to Bob Simon for getting this story together. It''s the first time I''ve seen anything like it on "mainstream" media in the US. I don''t know what happened to loosen things up so we could start getting some perspective on the Israel/Palestine situation, but I''m glad for it.
I''m a retired Presbyterian pastor who has traveled in Israel and the West Bank. What I saw and heard in Simon''s presentation is congruent with what I saw and heard while there.
I trust some follow up will be forthcoming.

[rklapholz]

Might I also add that American politicians and Israelis had once extended their hands to Hamas, as they did Osama bin Laden, and Saddam, but when their hand extension no longer serves their policies and pretext, they cut it off and brand that person terrorist. I am not saying any of the aforementioned are peaceful samaritans, but we involve our governments in dirty politics and then scream when it backfires. Study history, and not the one polluting our textbooks. Might I also add that terrorism comes in many forms, is Israel not terrorizing innocent Palestinians and American terrorizing peoples in other foreign lands? Lastly, according to international law, the occupier and even the aggressor must show responsibility. If we place Israel on a pedestal as the true democracy, then I have not witnessed it abide by any international law, treaty or agreement. Disproportionate response on an innocent population and use of chemical weapons are war crimes. Collective punishment is an absolute war crime. Do not blame the oppressed. Furthermore, Jews throughout Israel and the world who speak out against the Israeli government are persecuted and imprisoned. Dare we speak out against our own government in a democratice country. Dare we have a different stance. Plenty of orthodox and moderate Jews stand against the State of Israel and its dehumanizing policies.